[amelius]

> For more complex formats, where you have to carry state around, or binary formats, they're extremely cumbersome to use.

That's not a theoretical issue, but more a practical issue.

> you'll have to hack around the generator's limitations

You're probably thinking of LALR(1) class generators. But we have GLR parser generators for a long time now, and they are very flexible and have little limitations. See e.g. [1].

[1] http://scottmcpeak.com/elkhound/

[wbl]

How do you parse ASN.1 with this generator? Or JPEG?

[nickpsecurity]

Or especially Semantic Designs' tool that gets a ton of mileage out of GLR:

http://semanticdesigns.com/Products/DMS/DMSToolkit.html