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What does the "yy" in lex.yy.c stand for?

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flex-lexer

lex

What does the "yy" in lex.yy.c stand for?

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phillipwei Avatar asked Aug 19 '09 14:08

phillipwei


1 Answers

Lex was meant to be used in concert with Yacc. The history and details of this are detailed in Steven Johnson's paper Yacc: Yet Another Compiler Compiler. The Yacc parser uses only names beginning in "yy' - there's no apparent meaning discussed beyond simply desiring a namespace. The "yy" in lex.yy.c indicates that the lex output is intended for a yacc parser.

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peterb Avatar answered Dec 02 '22 13:12

peterb