Writing manual parser

Question

I need write a parser manually. Can`t choose between LL(*) and LR (maybe try Earley?). Should I use bottom-up parsing, because grammar for LL will be rather difficult?

Answer 1

This depends on the grammar you try to use. LL has some troubles with uncertainities in grammars (you'll have to make everything left-recursion free).

If you cannot decide, go with LR(1) or LALR. Maybe even GLR.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

The simplest type of parser to write by hand is a recursive descent parser, which is in the family of LL parsers. most other types of parser are either difficult to write by hand (LALR parsers, which use large state transition tables) or are for parsing complex languages (such as Earley parsers for parsing natural languages).

wikipedia has some good information on recursive descent parsing.

Answer 4

I would go with either a recursive descent parser or maybe a tail-recursive descent parser (i.e. LL) or a top-down operator precedence parser.

The LR family of parsers, whether that be LR, LALR(k), LALR(1), GLR or whatever are just too "weird" to keep in your head. If you try to write one of those, you generally end up implementing a parser generator anyway, just to stay sane.