A sentence generator for testing parsers

P Purdom - BIT Numerical Mathematics, 1972 - Springer
BIT Numerical Mathematics, 1972Springer
A fast algorithm is given to produce a small set of short sentences from a context free
grammar such that each production of the grammar is used at least once. The sentences are
useful for testing parsing programs and for debugging grammars (finding errors in a
grammar which causes it to specify some language other than the one intended). Some
experimental results from using the sentences to test some automatically generated simple
LR (1) parsers are also given.
Abstract
A fast algorithm is given to produce a small set of short sentences from a context free grammar such that each production of the grammar is used at least once. The sentences are useful for testing parsing programs and for debugging grammars (finding errors in a grammar which causes it to specify some language other than the one intended). Some experimental results from using the sentences to test some automatically generated simpleLR(1) parsers are also given.
Springer