Last Update Time-stamp: "97/06/27 20:21:41 umrigar"

  parsdemo is a interactive java applet used to demonstrate the operation of
the following parsing algorithms:

	+ Recursive-descent parsing.

	+ Table-driven LL(1) parsing.

	+ Shift-reduce parsing.

  Besides showing a parse tree or forest as it is being constructed, the
applet shows the current line in the program (for the recursive-descent
parser) or state in the parse table (for the LL(1) and shift-reduce
parsers).  It also displays a trace of the stack contents followed by the
remaining input.

  The demo comes with hand-written parsers for a simple language involving
assignments and arithmetic expressions.  It should be relatively easy to add
parsers for other languages, as each language/parser combination is
described by two leaf classes: a class describing the grammar and a class
describing the parser or parse table (the applet does not construct parsers
automatically from the grammar).

  It is also possible to run the demo as a stand-alone java program by typing:

	java zdu.parsdemo.ParsDemo [ALGORITHM]

where ALGORITHM is one of `LL1, `SR, or `Rec' (default). 

  parsdemo is available for viewing or download at:

	http://opal.cs.binghamton.edu/~zdu/parsdemo

	ftp://watson2.cs.binghamton.edu/pub/zdu/parsdemo.tar.gz

  Unfortunately, as our computer center tends to abruptly turn routers on
and off, these sites are not terribly reliable (especially on weekends).

INSTALLATION:

  You can retrieve the entire distribution by anonymous ftp from the above
address.  Then simply unzip and untar the distribution:

	gzcat parsdemo-1.0.tar.gz | tar -xvf -

This will unpack the distribution into a directory called parsdemo-1.0 which
will be created in your current directory.  You can rename or copy this
directory as you wish (however, do not alter the subdirectory structure). If
you point your browser to the extracted file index.html (at the top-level of
the new directory) you should be able to view the applets.

  All the source code and class files are in the subdirectory zdu/parsdemo.

  NOTE: The version number of the distributed package reflects the applet
code, and not the related html pages.  The html pages will be updated
without the version number being changed.