Re: typedef name question

[Ian Lance Taylor <iant at google dot com>]

"Michael Gong" <mwgong@cs.utoronto.ca> writes:

> To clarify myself a bit, is my following understanding correct ?
> 
> For this case:
>     int main() {
>         int foo;
>         foo abc;
>     }
> The Gcc's grammar does parse it, ie. an "identifier" can follow
> another "identifier".
> Then in the semantic analysis, gcc checks to make sure the first
> identifier "foo" must represent a type. In this case, it is not. So an
> error is reported.

I think you may be applying compiler theory to a real world compiler.

A better way to describe what happens would be to say that the lexer
looks up each identifier in the symbol table to see whether it is a
type before the parser proper ever sees it.

A truer way to describe what happens would be to observe that gcc uses
a recursive descent parser, not a grammar.

Ian