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Re: parser tokens

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Rui Maciel wrote:
> Chris Uppal wrote:
>
> > If you are working in C, and don't want to learn how to do parsing
> > properly (fairly big subject, but not unintersting), then see "flex".
> > Also "bison" (yacc).
>
> According to my experience, the flex/bison combo may appear to be a bit
> simpler to work with but in the end it takes much more work to learn the
> basics and to get it up and running, at least when dealing with relatively
> simple languages.

I don't entirely disagree.  Adding /any/ tool to the toolchain adds complexity,
and neither flex/lex nor bison/yacc are entirely trivial, especially if you
haven't used them before.  Certainly there are thresholds of complexity below
which I wouldn't bother using one or the other (there are also thresholds above
which I would require something better than either).

But I think that for a beginner, as the OP clearly is, you are more likely to
get it more or less right using a tool like flex, than if you do it by hand.
The point is that a half-baked attempt at using a tool will just fail, but a
half-baked attempt at hand-written code will produce half-baked code ;-)

OTOH, Ben has just pointed out that Bill probably wasn't talking about a parser
in the sense that I meant, anyway...

    -- chris

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Thread

parser tokens "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2011-12-29 22:46 -0500
  Re: parser tokens "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2011-12-30 10:50 +0100
    Re: parser tokens Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2011-12-30 14:54 +0000
      Re: parser tokens "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2011-12-30 16:26 +0100
        Re: parser tokens Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2011-12-30 16:09 +0000
          Re: parser tokens "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2011-12-30 18:22 +0100
            Re: parser tokens Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2011-12-30 19:33 +0000
              Re: parser tokens "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2011-12-30 23:08 +0100
  Re: parser tokens "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2011-12-30 12:09 +0000
    Re: parser tokens Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2011-12-30 14:43 +0000
      Re: parser tokens "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2011-12-31 08:48 +0000
  Re: parser tokens Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2011-12-30 14:23 +0000
  Re: parser tokens Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-12-30 23:41 +0000
    Re: parser tokens "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2011-12-31 18:26 -0500
      Re: parser tokens Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-01-01 01:51 +0000
        Re: parser tokens "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2012-01-01 12:17 -0500
          Re: parser tokens Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-01-01 22:17 +0000
            Re: parser tokens "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-01-01 22:54 +0000

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