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Ask HN: What is the simplest way for users to write custom parsers?

2 pointsby isaac21259over 3 years ago
I'm currently working on some software targeted at mathematicians. Part of this requires that the user can write parsers to parse custom notation. I would expect most mathematicians interested in this project to know at least some basic programming but I also think it would be too difficult to expect them to write a full recursive descent parser or similar for their own notation. My current plan is to expose a simple parser combinator library alternatively I was thinking of a parser generator instead. But I was wondering if there is an option which is even simpler for users. What is the simplest way to allow users to write custom parsers?

2 comments

skydhashover 3 years ago
A visual editor can be a nice tool to do that. In one side, the notation with placeholder describing the expected input, In the other side, how the notation can be evaluated with the existing ones using the same input. You can add things like loops.
Nokinsideover 3 years ago
What is the target language?<p>Are you parsing only expression grammars?