Spencer Rathbun

K

I'll stick around if you've got more questions, but it's back to the grind right now

No problem,

The example source is free for download, and has a great example of a simple c parser.

The best book ever written on the topic is shop.oreilly.com/product/9781565920002.do

Totally possible.

With the right tool, you can have arbitrary commands associated with each state. So yes, a regex can be used within a state.

This is an example from the flex manual for eating all input: flex.sourceforge.net/manual/…

Otherwise, it waits in the "just right" state for more input

If it is not correct, an error is created and the machine goes back to the ready state.

just right

too many coins

Not enough coins

So if I put some coins in the pop machine, then it matches them to:

Exactly like that.

That moves it to another state, where an arbitrary action can be performed.

Upon receiving input, it sees what "rule" the input matches, if any.

It sits in a "ready" state, waiting for input

A state machine is like a pop dispenser

So each regex becomes simple as it only has to match some specific item from the text stream.

That is, input -> select -> sql -> ending flag -> back to input stat

Because what you really want is a state machine.

I've found that lots of people try and do a parser's job with JUST regex

No problem

The python was just a suggestion for fast turn around.

Heya