why use flex?

Frank Hale <frankhale@worldnet.att.net>
27 Jan 1999 21:15:32 -0500

          From comp.compilers
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why use flex? frankhale@worldnet.att.net (Frank Hale) (1999-01-27)
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[4 later articles]
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From: Frank Hale <frankhale@worldnet.att.net>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 27 Jan 1999 21:15:32 -0500
Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services
Keywords: lex, question, comment

Why would someone use flex as opposed to writing there own lexer? I am
developing my own scripting language and find it much simpler to
create a lexer on my own, that way I can tailor it to my needs. What
makes using flex any easier, the code it generates is very large and
confusing even for a simple lexer.


--
From: Frank Hale
Email: frankhale@worldnet.att.net
ICQ: 7205161
Website: http://www.franksstuff.com/
[Writing your first flex lexer takes a while. After that, I find it
much faster than hand-coding. Also, if you can arrange your lexer so
it doesn't have to back up, which is usually possible, it's generally
faster than hand-coded because of the DFA pattern matching engine.
-John]

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