[Mono-list] Status of Bison port to C#

Stephen Torri storri@ameritech.net
23 Feb 2002 22:08:16 -0500


On Sat, 2002-02-23 at 22:11, Miguel de Icaza wrote:
> I just want to complement what Nick had to say.
> 
> We are interested in the Bison port for the C# compiler because Bison
> has better error recovery mechanisms during parsing when compared to
> Yacc (which is what we are using now).  

Ravi suggest that I do the following right now:

        * Poke around in jb2csharp [read sources etc]

        * See how Jay is currently used inside mcs [cs-parser.jay etc] 

        * Hack on jb2csharp so that we can effectively replace jay with
jb2csharp :-)

This conflicts with the state interest of the Bison port for the C#
compiler. Ravi is campaigning heavily for me to get involved with the
compiler. I am taking class in compilers this term as a part of my
Masters degree. I looked over jb2csharp. Its written in Java and uses a
structure that is similar to Java CUP (the parser-generator used for the
class).

I have downloaded the ECMA documentation describing the language
specification for C Sharp. There are two chapters that talk about the
grammar. I was going to start reading those.

Now do you agree with Ravi that I should start with jb2csharp or would
be adding C# support to Bison be the key? I am just try to get a initial
picture of where to begin.

Stephen