The Art of Parsing

Explore the fascinating world of parsing in this 37-minute Devoxx conference talk by Evgeny Mandrikov and Nicolas PERU. Delve into the history and significance of parsers, from their origins in the 1960s to their modern applications. Discover why parsing remains a crucial topic in computer science education and software development. Learn about the practical aspects of parsing, including why major compilers like javac, GCC, and Clang use hand-written parsers despite the availability of parser-generators based on formal theory. Gain insights into how SonarSource approaches parsing for various programming languages such as Java, C/C++, JavaScript, Python, and COBOL. The speakers, both experienced developers at SonarSource, share their expertise in language analysis and code quality. The talk covers topics like grammar types, parsing expressions, semantic analysis, and generalized parsers, providing a comprehensive overview of parsing techniques and their real-world applications.