Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!rochester!rit!tropix!moscom!ur-valhalla!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!sunybcs!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!humu!uhccux!aloha1!!jimh1 From: jimh1@.UUCP (jimh1 is ACK alter ego) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: yacc for minix - another option Summary: let's look at these alternatives Message-ID: <201@.UUCP> Date: 8 Aug 89 18:12:47 GMT References: <487@extro.ucc.su.oz> <18321@mimsy.UUCP> <146@ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au> Organization: Verifone Inc., Software tools, Mililani, HI Lines: 41 In article <146@ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au>, U5569462@ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au (DAVID CLUNIE) writes: > > There is no `Public Domain Yacc' that I know of. ... > You may be surprised to learn that there is another public domain yacc. I > wrote it many years ago. ... lines deleted > > I have never widely distributed it for several reasons: > > 1. Boy is it ugly ! There is no perfection in the public domain (or even the private one...) > > 2. Who needs yet another yacc ? Looks very much like there is quite an interest. Hence AT&T's hand slapping, Bison and this latest flap over YACC. > > 3. I was always a bit worried about the parser skeleton that I use. ... lines deleted > The worrying question is, what is the status of the genuine yacc skeleton. ... > The algorithm > has been widely published and referred to (though not in its entirety). ... > Before publishing a ported version widely (eg. here) however, the question > of the legal status of a genuine yacc derived parser skeleton must be > addressed satisfactorily. Could some one in the know come up with an answer ? > May be we should just straight out ask AT&T. > Does the skeleton have a copyright notice? If it does not and did not, we have no reason to believe that anyone wanted to protect it. Further, since a copyright notice identifies the owner of the copyright, the lack of such notice implies that the owner of such right is in question (maybe AT&T is'nt the owner of the skeleton you started with) Even so, the language processor you have produces something. It may not be necessary to have that something be EXACTLY usable by the existing parser skeleton. As we know, the OPERATION of that algorithm can not be copyrighted. James A. Hinds -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: If I knew what I was talking about, I would get paid for it.