From: Francis Cianfrocca <garbagecat10@...>
Date: 2006-09-15T11:51:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Regular expression question.

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On 9/14/06, Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> gcc agrees with me at least:
>
> % cat comments.c
> #include <stdio.h>
>
> int main(int argc, char **argv) {
>   /* printf("*/"); */
>   /* printf("/*.......*/"); */
>   return 0;
> }
> % gcc -c comments.c
> comments.c: In function 'main':
> comments.c:4: error: missing terminating " character
> comments.c:5: error: missing terminating " character
>
> >
> > is actually context-free. Does anyone know for sure?
> As for whether or not its context free, I don't know, but I think you
> overestimated how hard C tries. /* */ are not nestable for instance.
>
>


I know these are syntax errors in C. I was talking about a hypothetical
language (not C) that defined such constructs as legal. I'm still not sure
that it's impossible to use a regular language to generate this case:
/* "*/ */
I'm pretty convinced that the other case requires a context-free language.

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