Best practices for writing a programming language parser

Question

Are there any best practices that I should follow while writing a parser?

Answer 1

• Choose the right kind of parser, sometimes a Recursive Descendant will be enough, sometimes you should use an LR parser (also, there are many types of LR parsers).
• If you have a complex grammar, build an Abstract Syntax Tree.
• Try to identify very well what goes into the lexer, what is part of the syntax and what is a matter of semantics.
• Try to make the parser the least coupled to the lexer implementation as possible.
• Provide a good interface to the user so he is agnostic of the parser implementation.