LL

grammar A class of language grammars, which can

be parsed without backtracking. The first L stands for

Left-to-right scan, the second for Leftmost derivation.

Often found in the form LL(k) where k is the number of

tokens of look-ahead required when parsing a sentence of

the language. In particular, LL(1) is a fairly restrictive

class of grammar, but allows simple top-down parsing

(e.g. recursive-descent) to be used without wasteful

backtracking. A number of programming languages are LL(1)

(or close).

(1995-10-30)