contribution: av-parser

[spector@cs.UMD.EDU (Lee Spector)]

I've just put a file called av-parser.hqx in the CONTRIB directory of
cambridge.apple.com:pub/MACL.  I'm not the author; the author sent this
to me in response to my grapher query, and said that I could contribute the
code to the archive.  The author's description of the package is included
below.  I haven't had a chance to try it yet... It's code for MACL 1.3.2, I
believe.

  -Lee (spector@cs.umd.edu)

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The AV Parser is a ``unification-based'' parser (Shieber 1986)
intended for research and instructional purposes.  It is intended
for natural language parsing with ``attribute-value'' based theories
of grammar.

It has a graphical user interface, with tree and attribute-value
matrix drawing routines, and the graphics can be "cut and paste"
into other applications (e.g. word processors).

The grammar formalism is itself user-specifiable as an LALR(1)
(i.e. YACC-style) grammar, which the user can modify if desired.

The graphics routines and the LALR(1) parser generator may be
of independent interest to the MCL community.

Mark Johnson
mj@cs.brown.edu