From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Jan 28 06:32:32 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id GAA16571 for chat-outgoing; Tue, 28 Jan 1997 06:32:32 -0800 (PST) Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id GAA16566; Tue, 28 Jan 1997 06:32:29 -0800 (PST) Received: (from msmith@localhost) by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.8.2/8.7.3) id BAA12099; Wed, 29 Jan 1997 01:02:24 +1030 (CST) From: Michael Smith Message-Id: <199701281432.BAA12099@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> Subject: Re: Kernel config metasyntax In-Reply-To: <199701281253.XAA15463@nemeton.com.au> from Giles Lean at "Jan 28, 97 11:53:33 pm" To: giles@nemeton.com.au (Giles Lean) Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 01:02:23 +1030 (CST) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, config@freebsd.org, chat@freebsd.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL28 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Giles Lean stands accused of saying: > > > Later, anything that cares about options can access all of this and > > make up its own mind; the parser should not need to know or care > > what the attributes and their valus are.) > > In practice with tools implemented this way there is usually little > semantic checking, so typos such as incorrectly spelt attributes are > not detected and the Wrong Thing happens. Er, you don't mean semantic checking, you mean content checking, correct? As I've already observed, the parser should not know anything about the _content_ of the attributes it parses, and thus cannot possibly attempt to validate them. > Tools with more integrated semantic checks (typical with yacc :) don't > have this problem. They also have rigid and untrivially-extensible syntaxen. > If you use TCL, please validate input carefully. Insofar as is possible, sure. I don't think, however, that the sort of checking that you describe is feasible, desirable or even necessary, given that the input isn't going to be user-supplied. > Giles -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[ ]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[