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Date:         Mon, 3 Mar 1997 21:59:39 +0100
From: Hans Aberg <haberg@MATEMATIK.SU.SE>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
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To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
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Subject:      Re: Shortref mechanism
Status: R

"Randolph J. Herber" <herber@fnal.gov> wrote:

>|>        Please. would you use the proper nomenclature?
>
>|>        The pairing from your improper nomenclature to what I believe
>|>        is the pertinent nomenclature for what you are attempting to
>|>        discuss is:
>
>|>                deterministic           ==>             context free
>|>                non-deterministic       ==>             context sensitive

  I get a lot of (very long) letters of this kind, demanding that I should
use this or other terminology.
  I have an old book, "Compilers", by Robin Hunter, that on page 40 defines
the  notions "nondetermistic/deterministic parser" as whether of one can go
back on the decision in the parsing process, or not. This is what I mean.
  On page 231, a "context sensitive parser" is described as a method to
handle a attribute grammars, and the like. This is not what I have in mind.

  Otherwise, I do not understand how this or other terminology can solve
the problems discussed here.

  Hans Aberg