[TUHS] etymology of yacc

Bakul Shah bakul at iitbombay.org
Wed Oct 4 05:42:18 AEST 2023


From https://www.computerworld.com/article/2534771/yacc--unix--and-advice-from--bell-labs-alumni-stephen-johnson.html

What made you name your parser generator in the form of an acronym: Yet Another Compiler Compiler? There were other Compiler-compilers in use at Bell Labs, especially as part of the Multics project. I was familiar with a version of McClure's TMG. When Jeff Ullman heard about my program, he said in astonishment "Another compiler-compiler?". Thus the name...

> On Oct 2, 2023, at 6:25 PM, Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy at dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> 
> Steve,
> 
> Was Yacc an original coinage, or was it inspired by a similar acronym
> for yet another whatever? The question is inspired by Yamoo, yet
> another map of Orion, which is mentioned in today's NYT:
> https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/science/orion-nebula-webb-planets.html.
> Do the two acronyms share a common ancestor?
> 
> Doug

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