Re:Compiler Construction by Niklaus Wirth [pdf]
by userbinator on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:50PM
(#22208515)
I can name just as many "serious programming language" implementations that use recursive descent or migrated to it because a parser generator turned out to be a bad idea after all:
They force you to write a declarative grammar which a human can understand
It's a separate language that also has to be learnt, an extra step in the compilation process, and the difficulty of debugging parser-generator-generated code cannot be overstated. A recursive-descent parser written in a programming language is easily understood, debuggable, and does not incur any extra complexity.
Perhaps that is where the "no serious programming language" argument comes from --- the migration away from parser generators is a sign that the language has received enough attention such that the limitations of a generated parser become prominent.
Java, MSVC, GCC (after 2004), Clang/LLVM, ICC, C#, PowerShell, V8(JavaScript).
They force you to write a declarative grammar which a human can understand
It's a separate language that also has to be learnt, an extra step in the compilation process, and the difficulty of debugging parser-generator-generated code cannot be overstated. A recursive-descent parser written in a programming language is easily understood, debuggable, and does not incur any extra complexity.
Perhaps that is where the "no serious programming language" argument comes from --- the migration away from parser generators is a sign that the language has received enough attention such that the limitations of a generated parser become prominent.