[thelist] Browser parsing

Robin Hastings robin at rhastings.net
Thu Mar 15 09:25:04 CST 2001


:I'm in the process of creating some web tutorials and wondered anyone could
:furnish me with a detailed explanation of what the term 'Parsing' means in
:relation to the web. I have read Ben Henicks excellent article 'Back to
:Basics' which gives a general description of what the browser does but I
:could really do with some more information.

:If anybody could help I would be very grateful.

:Warmest regards
:Mark

>From www.webopedia.com, looking for the word parse:

"In linguistics, to divide language into small components that can be
analyzed. For example, parsing this sentence would involve dividing it into
words and phrases and identifying the type of each component (e.g., verb,
adjective, or noun).

Parsing is a very important part of many computer science disciplines. For
example, compilers must parse source code to be able to translate it into
object code. Likewise, any application that processes complex commands must
be able to parse the commands. This includes virtually all end-user
applications.

Parsing is often divided into lexical analysis and semantic parsing. Lexical
analysis concentrates on dividing strings into components, called tokens,
based on punctuation and other keys. Semantic parsing then attempts to
determine the meaning of the string. "
 If you take a look at the actual definition, lots of these words are
defined as well!

Robin Hastings
Public Computer Center Coordinator
hastingsr at mrrl.org
(573) 634-6064 x242









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