Construction of efficient generalized LR parsers

Alonso, Miguel Ángel Verdugo; Cabrero, David; Ferro, Manuel Vilares

doi:10.1007/bfb0031377

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To measure the speed of Elkhound's ordinary LR parser, we measured its performance against Bison and ASF+SDF on the following LALR(1) grammar, also used in [14]:…”

Section: Parser Generatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Elkhound: A Fast, Practical GLR Parser Generator

McPeak

Necula

2004

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The Generalized LR (GLR) parsing algorithm is attractive for use in parsing programming languages because it is asymptotically efficient for typical grammars, and can parse with any context-free grammar, including ambiguous grammars. However, adoption of GLR has been slowed by high constant-factor overheads and the lack of a general, user-defined action interface. In this paper we present algorithmic and implementation enhancements to GLR to solve these problems. First, we present a hybrid algorithm that chooses between GLR and ordinary LR on a token-by-token basis, thus achieving competitive performance for determinstic input fragments. Second, we describe a design for an action interface and a new worklist algorithm that can guarantee bottom-up execution of actions for acyclic grammars. These ideas are implemented in the Elkhound GLR parser generator. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques, we describe our experience using Elkhound to write a parser for C++, a language notorious for being difficult to parse. Our C++ parser is small (3500 lines), efficient and maintainable, employing a range of disambiguation strategies.

show abstract

“…To measure the speed of Elkhound's ordinary LR parser, we measured its performance against Bison and ASF+SDF on the following LALR(1) grammar, also used in [14]:…”

Section: Parser Generatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first parsing algorithm for the entire class of context free grammars was the Earley dynamic programming algorithm [6], with running time Ω(n 2 ) and O(n 3 ). A number of variations and refinements have been proposed [20,21,14,22,23], but none has yet emerged as a practical algorithm for parsing programming languages.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elkhound: A Fast, Practical GLR Parser Generator

McPeak

Necula

2004

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Traditional types of deterministic parsing automata (e.g. LR and LALR) have been applied with great success in Earley parsers [18] and Earley-like parsers [19,20,21]. Conceptually, this has the effect of precomputing groups of Earley items which must appear together in an Earley set, thus reducing the amount of work the Earley algorithm must perform at parse time.…”

Section: The Birth Of a New Automatonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical Earley Parsing

Aycock

Horspool²

2002

The Computer Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Earley's parsing algorithm is a general algorithm, able to handle any context-free grammar. As with most parsing algorithms, however, the presence of grammar rules having empty right-hand sides complicates matters. By analyzing why Earley's algorithm struggles with these grammar rules, we have devised a simple solution to the problem. Our empty-rule solution leads to a new type of finite automaton expressly suited for use in Earley parsers and to a new statement of Earley's algorithm. We show that this new form of Earley parser is much more time efficient in practice than the original.

show abstract

“…Not only does threaded code proffer speed advantages [16], but it can work better with branch prediction hardware on modern CPUs [11]. We implement this in a reasonably portable fashion using the first-class labels in GNU C. 2 How is an Earley item added to an Earley set in this representation? First, recall that an Earley item is only placed in an Earley set if it does not already appear there.…”

Section: Earley Set Representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using deterministic parsers as an efficient basis for general parsing algorithms was suggested by Lang in 1974 [18]. However, none of the applications of this idea in Earley parsers [22] and Earley-like parsers [2,6,26] have explored the benefits of using an almost-deterministic automaton and exploiting Earley's ability to simulate nondeterminism.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Directly-Executable Earley Parsing

Aycock

Horspool

2001

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Deterministic parsing techniques are typically used in favor of general parsing algorithms for efficiency reasons. However, general algorithms such as Earley's method are more powerful and also easier for developers to use, because no seemingly arbitrary restrictions are placed on the grammar. We describe how to narrow the performance gap between general and deterministic parsers, constructing a directlyexecutable Earley parser that can reach speeds comparable to deterministic methods even on grammars for commonly-used programming languages.

show abstract

Construction of efficient generalized LR parsers

Cited by 7 publications

References 8 publications

Elkhound: A Fast, Practical GLR Parser Generator

Elkhound: A Fast, Practical GLR Parser Generator

Practical Earley Parsing

Directly-Executable Earley Parsing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About