Why Use Parser Generators Instead of Handwriting Parsers?

The standard academic approach teaches the use of parser generators, and they do provide a solid foundation. However, many popular languages use hand-written parsers because they allow for clearer error messages and potentially better performance. It's a balance between adhering to established practices and optimizing for your particular needs.

Parsing is a complicated field that's been studied a lot, resulting in robust implementations available to use. While creating a parser from scratch is a great learning experience, it's often impractical for real-world applications where efficiency and reliability are key. Using pre-built solutions typically saves time and effort in most cases, unless your situation is really niche.

I think a big plus for parser generators is ease of maintenance and speed. When you need to tweak the grammar a couple of years down the line, it’s much easier to adjust a parser generated from specifications than a handwritten one. Plus, you can quickly iterate during development without a huge time investment.

One of the reasons parser generators are favorable is that they allow for rapid prototyping. You can play around with your grammar without worrying too much about the gritty implementation details. But, if you need your parser to handle errors gracefully or to optimize it for your specific use case, you're likely going to have to write it by hand eventually.

Handwriting parsers can be really tricky and error-prone, especially in languages like C or C++ where a small mistake can lead to serious security vulnerabilities. Parser generators help you avoid a lot of those pitfalls. However, they can be generalized, which means you might miss out on minor performance tweaks that could be beneficial, depending on how complex your grammar is.