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Parsing with DCG-terms

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Book cover Logic Programming and Automated Reasoning (LPAR 1993)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 698))

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Abstract

Definite Clause Grammars (DCGs) are powerful adjuncts to Prolog, permitting the clear and succinct encoding of parsers and other grammar related programs. Normally, a DCG is incorporated into a Prolog program by being treated as a special set of predicates. This paper utilises DCGs in a different way, by augmenting the unification algorithm with DCG-terms. More importantly, this notation allows token lists to be constructed and deconstructed by reference to nonterminal names. Examples in the parsing domain are used to illustrate these ideas, and show how programs are improved. In particular, searches for sublists of tokens of different types can be expressed simply, without having to complicate the underlying DCG. Also, the DCG part of a program is more independent of the other code, which makes both easier to debug and modify.

Due to space constraints, the implementation section has been removed from this version of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Melbourne, 3052, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Andrew Davison

Authors
  1. Andrew Davison
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Andrei Voronkov

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Davison, A. (1993). Parsing with DCG-terms. In: Voronkov, A. (eds) Logic Programming and Automated Reasoning. LPAR 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 698. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56944-8_45

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56944-8_45

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-56944-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47830-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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