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C4 – C in 4 functions

(github.com)
517 points petercooper | 1 comments | 04 Nov 14 20:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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abecedarius ◴[04 Nov 14 21:23 UTC] No.8559116[source]▶
On a first skim, this looks really nice; complaints that it's unreadable are unfounded. The background that makes it readable are Wirth's Compiler Construction http://www.ethoberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/CBEAll.pdf plus precedence climbing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operator-precedence_parser#Prec...
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dabockster ◴[04 Nov 14 23:53 UTC] No.8559784[source]▶
complaints that it's unreadable are unfounded

Not exactly. You have to remember that language and compiler design require a LOT of work and experience to understand, and that many programmers will only see this as, frankly, spaghetti.

I think it could have used some more block comments, but that's just me.

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1. qznc ◴[05 Nov 14 10:13 UTC] No.8561169[source]▶
Compilers are also a very well understood topic. If you have seen (and understood) a recursive decent parser with precedence climbing, the code looks as expected. It is a pretty straightforward implementation.