# in-db parsing problem

asb@media.mit.edu (asb@media.mit.edu)
Thu, 12 Oct 1995 18:58:07 PDT

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    Ouch... I've been working with in-db parsing for a while, and I can't believe
    I never encountered this problem before.  Suppose you have an object frob
    which is a $thing.  $thing has a verb drop <this none none>.  If your in-db
    parser wants to drop the frob, you call:
    frob:drop();

    So far so good.  Now suppose frob is also a child of $container.
    $container has a drop <any in this> verb.

    Try to drop the container.  My parser knows there's a drop <this none none>
    and and a drop <any in this> and it wants to call the drop <this none none>.
    But doing frob:drop will always call the <any in this> cause it's on the
    child (generic container).

    Is there any way around this?  (I can rewrite $container in the scripting
    language I'm using in-db parsing to implement... but I'm wondering if
    there's a more general way to solve the problem.)

    -- Amy