Working in the Next Big Thing
Usually computer science students tend to think that the Compilers subject is useless and will never have any application in their lives. I mostly agree with them. We usually finish doing crap works in where the hardest development tasks are thinking a base class tree (which will very probably have to be changed due to client requirements), so there's no space for applying our Wonderful Knowledge about Compilers.
Luckily I have more ideas in mind than doing typical applications; even more, I was thinking about one feature that I want to have on my no-engine and I suddenly realized that I needed to have a little parser on it. Thanks God! All of those (supposedly) wasted hours in the laboratory trying to code an stupid Pascal compiler (in Pascal!) have been justified three years after! Isn't it great? I was looking at the expression grammar of that documentation and then I saw everything so clear and structured!!
Cool!
Jcl
20050804
if I was you, i'd think of using a pre-made parser (ruby/python/whatever)… doing a script parser is a tiresome task, and will more likely end up being unfinished and you'll end using the little features you implement in clever ways (instead of just using a ready-made parser and have all the features in a second).
I talk from experience here 0:)
sole
20050805
Well, in these cases I prefer to have a good think before starting to do anything. One could say what I like most is thinking somehow :-)
And for that I usually spend some time having a look at what other people have made, how have they approached the problem… that's how I arrived to that page with the grammar, he he.
But I don't think that I'll finally take an already made parser. This is like cooking, you could simply go and buy something already cooked and enjoy it or you could also read some recipes and methods for doing your favourite dish and do it yourself. Then you enjoy both the dish and the process.
Of course I won't do it if it was a very complicated recipe for highly skilled chefs, but for a nice simple dessert it's ok ;-)
That's the difference between a hobby and a job, I suppose…