undefined | Better HN

0 pointsStrawberryFrog15y ago0 comments

regular expressions are always the wrong tool for the job of parsing languages with recursive syntax. See, for instance, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-...

0 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

jerf15y ago· 1 in thread

Did you actually read the linked stuff, or did you just trigger on the keywords "parse" and "regular expression"? I did say it wasn't exactly what was looked for, but it would be interesting to see if someone could extend the results in the linked post from a regular expression to a parse tree. It isn't immediately obvious to me whether you could or could not.

pjscott15y ago

Yes, it's possible to extend the method in the linked post to parse trees. Check out monoidal parsing:

http://comonad.com/reader/2009/iteratees-parsec-and-monoid/

This guy figured out how to turn parsers written with Parsec (an excellent collection of parser combinators; truly a pleasure to use) into monoidal parsers that you can use for incremental and/or parallel parsing.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse