[PaulHoule]

Another problem I have with parser generators is that they often have an awful API.

For instance, working in a OO language such as C#, I often want to turn the parse into an AST build out of idiomiatic objects.

Most compiler-compilers use the same "callback hell" interface that was used for the original yacc in the 1970's. Thus you wind up writing error-prone code.

Conceptually, the grammars used in compiler-compilers aren't that much more complex than regexes (you just have named sub-expressions, the possibility of recursion, and possibly some specification of associativity) Yet, regexes are probably used 100x more in application software development.

In many systems programming areas I think often using unergonomic tools is a badge of pride, it proves how smart you are, so I think ergonomics are often not taken seriously by those who develop the tools.

[electrum]

ANTLR4 automatically generates a visitor for your grammar that you can use to translate into your own idiomatic objects: http://jakubdziworski.github.io/java/2016/04/01/antlr_visito...

We use this in Presto for parsing SQL and generating an immutable AST:

https://github.com/prestodb/presto/blob/master/presto-parser...

https://github.com/prestodb/presto/blob/master/presto-parser...