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Alex—A Simple and Efficient Scanner Generator

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H. MössenböckAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 21, Issue 5

Pages 69 - 78

https://doi.org/10.1145/14947.888678

Published: 01 May 1986 Publication History

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Abstract

Alex is a scanner generator which translates the lexical description of a programming language into a scanner for that language. The scanner description language is easy to use, as it is intentionally small and simple. Alex as well as the generated scanners are written in Modula-2 and implemented on several microcomputers. The scanner generator may be used in conjunction with a compiler-compiler. As an example we show how to describe the lexical structure of Modula-2 with our tool. The scanner generated from that description is only about 20 percent slower than a hand-coded scanner.

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Cited By

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Brouwer KGellerich WPloedereder E(2005)Myths and facts about the efficient implementation of finite automata and lexical analysisCompiler Construction10.1007/BFb0026419(1-15)Online publication date: 15-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0026419
Mössenböck H(2005)A generator for production quality compilersCompiler Compilers10.1007/3-540-53669-8_73(42-55)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53669-8_73
Albinus MAßmann W(2005)The INDIA lexic generatorCompiler Compilers and High Speed Compilation10.1007/3-540-51364-7_9(115-127)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-51364-7_9
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Index Terms

Alex—A Simple and Efficient Scanner Generator
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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Information

Published In

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 21, Issue 5

May 1986

57 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/14947

Editor:
Richard L Wexelblat

Issue’s Table of Contents

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 May 1986

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 21, Issue 5

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Cited By

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Brouwer KGellerich WPloedereder E(2005)Myths and facts about the efficient implementation of finite automata and lexical analysisCompiler Construction10.1007/BFb0026419(1-15)Online publication date: 15-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0026419
Mössenböck H(2005)A generator for production quality compilersCompiler Compilers10.1007/3-540-53669-8_73(42-55)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53669-8_73
Albinus MAßmann W(2005)The INDIA lexic generatorCompiler Compilers and High Speed Compilation10.1007/3-540-51364-7_9(115-127)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-51364-7_9
Yang W(1996)Mealy machines are a better model of lexical analyzersComputer Languages10.1016/0096-0551(96)00003-322:1(27-38)Online publication date: 1-Apr-1996
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/0096-0551%2896%2900003-3
Racković M(1996)Construction of a translator for robot-programming languagesJournal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems10.1007/BF0012549415:2(209-232)Online publication date: Feb-1996
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00125494
Yang W(1995)On the look-ahead problem in lexical analysisActa Informatica10.1007/BF0121307932:5(459-476)Online publication date: 1-May-1995
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/BF01213079
(1993)CConcise Encyclopedia of Software Engineering10.1016/B978-0-08-036214-4.50010-5(31-83)Online publication date: 1993
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-036214-4.50010-5
Szafron DNg R(1990)LexAGen: an interactive incremental scanner generatorSoftware—Practice & Experience10.1002/spe.438020050320:5(459-483)Online publication date: 1-May-1990
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/spe.4380200503
Sharpe D(1988)Adding regular expressions to PascalACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/57669.5768223:12(125-133)Online publication date: 1-Dec-1988
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/57669.57682

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