Peter wrote:
> You could say 'developer friendly' I think. Anyway automated parser
> generators work very well with ASCII streams and not so well with
> binary sequences, so the road to productivity is clear.

That's a rather rediculous statement.  A binary stream "parser" is as simple
as a CASE statement (or SWITCH if you prefer C, computed GOTO in Fortran,
dispatch table in assembly, etc).  The whole point of binary is that there
is nothing to parse.  Automated parser tools can make it easier to parse a
complex text syntax, but not as easy as not needing any parsing in the first
place.

For example, here is the complete command "parsing" code of a test program
that handles 47 different responses from a embedded system:

  b := ibyte;                          {get response opcode byte}
  case b of                            {which response is it ?}

> Also writing
> parsers for anything more complex than a few lines of BNF by hand is
> suicidal imho.  The tools will beat one to it every time.

Every time, no exception, ever?  Sounds rather fanatical (and silly, but
arguing against faith is pointless).


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