[Python-Dev] Re: Automatic flex interface for Python?

[Aahz]

On Wed, Aug 21, 2002, Skip Montanaro wrote:
> 
>     aahz> I'm mostly going by comments Tim Peters has made in the past
>     aahz> suggesting that regex tools are poor for parsing.  
> 
> parsing != tokenizing. ;-)
> Regular expressions are great for tokenizing (most of the time).

Ah.  Here we see one of the little drawbacks of not finishing my CS
degree.  ;-)  Can someone suggest a good simple reference on the
distinctions between parsing / lexing / tokenizing, particularly in the
context of general string processing (e.g. XML) rather than the arcane
art of compiler technology?
-- 
Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

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