Minimizing the Number of Evaluation Passes for Attribute Grammars

The problem of constructing multi-pass evaluators for attribute grammars is studied. We show that the construction algorithm used heretofore can in the worst case produce evaluators which perform $2n - 1$ passes over the parse tree, where $n$ is the minimum number of passes required. Furthermore, th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSIAM journal on computing Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 772 - 786
Main Authors Räihä, Kari-Jouko, Ukkonen, Esko
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Philadelphia Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 01.11.1981
Subjects
Algorithms
Approximation
Computer science
Semantics
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Summary:The problem of constructing multi-pass evaluators for attribute grammars is studied. We show that the construction algorithm used heretofore can in the worst case produce evaluators which perform $2n - 1$ passes over the parse tree, where $n$ is the minimum number of passes required. Furthermore, the problem of constructing an optimal evaluation order is shown to be NP-complete. We then develop a new characterization for attribute grammars evaluable in passes. It can be directly applied as an efficient membership test. Finally, the characterization is used for deriving a polynomial time construction algorithm for a large subclass of pass-oriented attribute grammars. The subclass is argued to be of practical importance.
ISSN:0097-5397
1095-7111
DOI:10.1137/0210060