[sqrt17]

> The more I work with parsing, parser combinators and writing grammars for little languages, the less often I find myself using or wanting to use any regex at all.

Surprise: The most common parser combinator libraries do backtracking. That's exactly the problem. Any solution as widely used (if not overused) as regular expressions ends up exposing a number of dark corners where the design isn't as clean and tight as you would want it. There are lots of better ways, but most of them are specialized and are totally unsuited for significant areas where people need something.

That said: yes I've used LR(1) parsing (not LALR) using a library that uses parser combinators with a good interface, and it's more powerful than regex and worth it for the right usecase.