Premium
Schrödinger's token
Author(s) -
Aycock John,
Horspool R. Nigel
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/spe.390
Subject(s) - security token , computer science , compiler , programming language , parsing , programmer , grammar , context (archaeology) , syntax , simple (philosophy) , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , linguistics , operating system , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , biology
A common problem when writing compilers for programming languages or little, domain‐specific languages is that an input token may have several interpretations, depending on context. Solutions to this problem demand programmer intervention, obfuscate the language's grammar, and may introduce subtle bugs. We present a technique which is simple and without the above drawbacks—allowing a token to simultaneously have different types—and show how it can be applied to areas such as little language processing and fuzzy parsing. We also describe ways that compiler tools can support this technique. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.