Just-in-time Compilation for Generalized Parsing
Stefan Fehrenbach · 2014
Parsing syntactically extensible languages requires generalized parsers which are slow to generate for repeatedly changing grammars. This situation is similar to the execution of dynamic languages like JavaScript, suggesting that we can appropriate technology from that field to use in just-in-time compiled parsers. We implement two just-intime compiling grammar interpreters, a simple one and a generalized LL parser, using a research prototype of a programming language implementation framework called Truffle. Exploratory performance experiments suggests that appropriating just-in-time compilation technology for parsers is not only possible, but close to being competitive for generalized parsing and might even surpass handwritten recognizers in some cases.