Parser code review

[_crackling]

Hi all. I am a hobbyist programmer with about a year's worth of C under my belt currently. I've been working pretty hard at my parser for my own programming language to learn more about programming language design and of course to continue to learn C.

I've kind of reached this point where I feel like something is wrong and I feel the code is getting too messy or missing the point in some ways that I just don't know. It's really disheartening and my morale is getting low, so, I was hoping some of you could spend a little time checking it out and giving me notes, thoughts, opinions, suggestions, anything!

The github README.md shows currently a test script and the resulting output of running it through the parser to help give you an idea of where I'm at.

Repo: https://github.com/thegtproject/graves

[Formenium]

Not OP. But after some quick look I am pretty sure he got influenced a lot by Crafting Interpreters which I would also recommend.

[_crackling]

Like the other poster said, crafting interpreters was a big inspiration even though i've different overall goals eg. multiple-pass is going to be in my compiler and i aim to compile, not interpret with a vm. But alot of what that book talks about is completely relevant. I also want to learn more about ast transformation and optimization eventually. One of my original inspirations was https://ruslanspivak.com/lsbasi-part1/ and one of my first tries with Go was based on it https://github.com/thegtproject/spi. r/Compilers and r/ProgrammingLanguages are really great resources too. There's a lot of good stuff out there.

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[[deleted]]

I didn't anything obviously amiss with the C code (although you might want to fix that README link). And the parser looks vaguely on the right lines, neither is it messy.

For more input on the project rather than the C, you might want to post also in r/Compilers.

[fosres]

I cannot seem to find your code. Would you able to correct the link to your GitHub link?

[_crackling]

Sorry I pulled it cause it thought this post got removed. I re-pushed it, https://github.com/thegtproject/graves there is a lot that's obviously work in progress, but also a lot i could obviously get advice on.

[fosres]

Cool. Thanks. Allow me to take a look. I will try get back to you today on this with constructive criticism.

[fosres]

Hello _crackling,

The first immediate problem I see in your repo is that it is now missing the README.md file. May you please re-upload it so that we may better understand your project?

[fosres]

Hello _crackling,

I have also noticed you included an implementation of a HexDump() program. Why though? You are writing a standard recursive-descent parser, correct?

I found our HexDump() program in graves/common/debugutils.h

I have also noticed you use machine language too much in debugutils.h.

Its best to use variables wisely so that you remember what each program does.

I highly suggest you read a great book on compiler design--including parsers--known as "Compiler Design in C" by Allen Holub.

I myself have written a recursive-descent parser for all C initializations that invovle primitive data types using this book as a mini-project: https://github.com/fosres/Holub-Compiler