Computer Science: An Overview: Global Edition (12th Edition)

Published by Pearson Higher Education
ISBN 10: 1292061162
ISBN 13: 978-1-29206-116-0

Chapter 6 - Programming Languages - Chapter Review Problems - Page 326: 41

Answer

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One argument against designing a set of syntax diagrams to describe the grammatical structure of such sentences is the lack of finite rule-based representation for arbitrary repetitions. The structure you're describing, with a sequence of "yes," "no," and "maybe" repeated the same number of times, creates a variable-length pattern that cannot be easily captured by traditional syntax diagrams. Syntax diagrams typically work well for representing finite sets of rules, where each rule corresponds to a specific syntactic structure. However, when dealing with repetitions of elements, especially with a variable number of occurrences as in your case, it becomes challenging to represent such patterns using a finite set of rules. In the context of your example, attempting to create a syntax diagram that encompasses all possible combinations of "yes," "no," and "maybe" with the same number of occurrences would likely result in an overly complex and impractical diagram. This complexity arises from the need to account for all possible permutations while maintaining grammatical coherence, which is not feasible within the confines of traditional syntax diagrams. As a result, attempting to design syntax diagrams for such sentences would likely be impractical and overly complex, making it a challenging task to accurately represent the grammatical structure of these sentences in a concise and comprehensible manner.
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