On predictive parsing and extended context-free grammars

Extended context-free grammars are context-free grammars in which the right-hand sides of productions are allowed to be any regular language rather than being restricted to only finite languages. We present a novel view on top-down predictive parser construction for extended context-free grammars that is based on the rewriting of partial syntax trees. This work is motivated by our development of ECFG, a Java toolkit for the manipulation of extended context-free grammars, and by our continuing investigation of XML. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003