Summary
The use of context-free grammars to define the syntax of programming languages is complicated by the phenomenon of ambiguity. Ambiguity can be resolved by the specification of a unique canonical parse. A set of rules is given which defines a canonical bottom-up parse, and these rules are implemented in a left-to-right bottom-up parsing algorithm. A second set of rules is given which defines a canonical top-down parse, and these rules are similarly implemented in a left-to-right top-down parsing algorithm.
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Wharton, R.M. Resolution of ambiguity in parsing. Acta Informatica 6, 387–395 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268139