[kragen]

oh, i agree that parsing is not the hard part of writing a compiler, and that compilers classes overemphasize it

but no language starts out as a 'real world lang'; every language is initially a toy language, and only becomes a 'real world lang' in the unlikely case that it turns out to be useful. and parser generators are very useful for creating toy languages. that's why virtually every real world lang you've ever used was implemented first using a parser generator, even if the parser you're using for it now is handwritten

having a formally defined grammar is also very helpful for dx features like syntax highlighting and automated refactoring