Re: [Caml-list] Array.make exception and parser

["Daniel Bünzli" <daniel.buenzli@erratique.ch>]

> There are more modern LR parser generators which do a far better job and there's no theoretical reason they can't do just as well as LL tools.

I'm not talking about theory. Practically I have never seen an LR
parser throw me good error messages. Besides ocaml users
(understandably) do use ocamlyacc since it comes with the distribution
and is needed by the ocaml compiler.

> Also, you might want to keep in mind that this is largely a zero-sum game. If the developers spend more time on the parser, that's less time on the rest of the compiler or new research. So, saving developer time does, in fact, mean *more* user convenience -- just in a different part of the compiler.

I dont buy this. Loosing the time of your users by producing crappy
error messages is never a user convenience. And for a programming
language like ocaml this also has the bad side effect to make the
beginner's learning curve much steeper, which doesn't benefit ocaml
developers as a whole.

I think you overestimate the time it takes to code a recursive descent
parser. The needed infrastructure is nothing more than a programming
pattern. After that your code pretty much follows your (LL factored)
grammar.

Best,

Daniel