1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. COMP.COMPILERS

  • Can vi emulate the power of yacc?

    From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Fri Mar 13 00:56:01 2020
    There are 3 ingredients in vi which, when combined, via the Chomsky-Schuetzenberger Theorem, may give it the power to fully emulate simple syntax direct translations and push down transducers ... and possibly even syntax directed translations.

    (1) "%" to match brackets; with the important condition that this works on at least 2 different kinds of brackets
    (2) the regular expression facility; particularly its ability to name and use parameters
    (3) the search & replace function.

    So, here's a simple challenge of sorts to test the idea: write a vi script that converts between infix and postfix order with at least two levels of operator precedence. I don't know if it can actually be done.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)