Syntactic Analysis by Digital Computer
This paper provides an account of the Shadow
language that is used to describe syntax and of 
a corresponding subroutine that enables a computer
to perform syntactic analysis.  The input to this 
subroutine consists of a string to be analyzed and a
description of the syntax that is to be used.  The 
syntax is expressed in the Shadow language.  The output
consists of a trace table that expresses the 
results of the syntactic analysis in a tabular form.  Several
versions of the subroutine and some associated 
programs have been in use now for over three years.  The
present account of the language and the subroutine 
contains a summary of material that has been described
previously in unpublished reports and also some 
additional discussion of the work in relation to the more
general questions of problem-oriented languages 
and string transformations.
CACM October, 1962
Barnett, M. P.
Futrelle, R. P.
