Evaluate Cadaver Syntax Analyzer

Study the way syntax analysis is done in your Cadaver compiler and relate it to the material discussed in class. Following are some examples of issues that would be interesting to discuss. You should add any others that you discover or that you think are relevant. The purpose of these questions is to motivate you to understand details about how the source language is handled, not just find out (superficially) what category of parser is used.

• What parsing method is used? If it is table-driven, what is the table-building tool? Is the parser itself provided by the tool? If it is hand-coded, is there any formal specification of the syntax that is parsed?
• Is there a clean interface between parser and semantics? If so, how can you tell? If not, why not?
• Does the parser use semantic information to make parsing decisions? If so, explain how and why.
• If the parser is LALR or full LR, are there some grammar situations in which non-SLR lookahead is needed? Explain how you determined that (no matter which way the answer goes). If yes, give at least one example. If you can, show what the corresponding SLR grammar would look like.
• If the parser is hand-written, describe its organization. Does it parse in a deterministic context free manner (i.e. does it mimic a table-driven parser)? If so, explain what would be entailed in replacing the parser with a Bison or Yacc parser. If not, explain in what ways the programmed solution deviates from the equivalent formal solution (e.g. give an example in which the programming flexibility is exploited).
• What is the design of the error handling? Is there evidence that it is tuned to this source language? Give some examples, or explain why not.
• How robust is the compiler in the face of errors? How good are the diagnostics? How did you determine that?