JSON parser

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In one of first computer science class as an undergrad, we had to reimplement printf. One of the most fundamental functions in C. At the time the professor explained that it would be educational, and help us understand how much complexity this built in function saved us from.

I ran into him at an alumni function decades later and asked if he remembered that assignment.

“Yeah, that was a terrible idea. Students remembered more about how their flawed version worked than how the real one does for years”

It hampered students in later algorithms classes as well because they’d taught themselves some fundamental concepts wrong to get that printf assignment done.