[antlr-interest] Can subrules be set to 'n-to-m'?
Scott Stanchfield
scott at javadude.com
Sat Mar 26 14:18:13 PST 2005
Dude -- I think you're missing the point about regexps.
*Anything* can be abused. One could write an ANTLR parser in a few huge
rules with a bunch of subrules that are unreadable...
The point of the regexp mention is that
__many_people_are_used_to_the_syntax__. We don't need to shield people from
things they already know how to use and are more efficent using without
extra syntax.
-- Scott
> > While we're on the subject of lexers, one of John D.
> Mitchell's emails
> > on this subject appears to denigrate the regex as something that's
> > only useful for simple operations or hacks.
>
> Hmm... I can see how it could be read that way. To be clear,
> at heart, regexps are just another tool. One of the big
> problems is that because of their easy to get started with
> nature, people have gone well and truly insane in their abuse
> of both the usage of regexps as well as gerrymandering them
> to attempt to become full blown grammars. That's become a
> vicious cycle.
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