Re: paper: Towards Automatic Error Recovery in Parsing Expression

On 2025-07-09, John R Levine <johnl@taugh.com> quoted:
> Error recovery is an essential feature for a parser that should be plugged
> in Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), which must build Abstract


I am deeply skeptical. Error recovery is essential when you're handing
a deck of punched cards to a job submission window.


A compiler integrated into an IDE can stop at the first error,
put the cursor there and so it goes.


The IDE can always be compiling as you type each character, so that most
of the time there are no errors in the code. The only time an error
occurs is when you type something malformed or not yet complete, and
that is happening exactly in one place: where the cursor is in the
file that has the current editing focus. The situation is flagged
as you type so you fix it


If your refactoring tools are producing bad code, the tools need
to be repaired.


--
TXR Programming Language: http://nongnu.org/txr
Cygnal: Cygwin Native Application Library: http://kylheku.com/cygnal
Mastodon: @Kazinator@mstdn.ca
[It's a little more complicated than that. Sometimes you cut and paste
code, or you import a file of code from somewhere. But I agree that a
plausible approach is to stop at the first error and say fix it. -John]

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