HackerTube.dev

Parsing with Derivatives

Stanford · 13.4K views · 2011-06-03 · 1:13:10

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

A Stanford talk by Matthew Might on parsing with derivatives, a new way to write parsers, and why better parsing tools are needed. It discusses language theory and criticizes ad-hoc hand-written parsers.

On Hacker News

Mentioned as a great talk and related reading in threads on parsing techniques.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2016–2023

Topics

Compilers, interpreters & program analysisFunctional programming
Search by tags
parsinglanguage theorymatt mightparser combinatorsderivatives

What people said

cellularmitosis · 2018-09 · Recommendation

Off topic, but he also gave a great talk on parsing with derivatives [VIDEO] which was used by the clojure team [LINK]

Read the original HN comment ↗
ThatGeoGuy · 2023-05 · Reference

In addition to this, I always think about Matt Might's "Parsing with Derivatives." [1] I'll have to read about flap, as it seems to utilize a lexer based on derivatives. [1]: [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
joe_the_user · 2016-06 · Reference

Yes, I'm scanning the original video introducing derivatives[1]. The need for parsing is ubiquitous yet, Never mind CS students, in my experiences a significant number of professional programmers cannot create a basic parser either from scratch or from a standard tool. Edit: The video picks on hand-written c parser. Such a thing isn't necessarily bad IF it's in a formally derived recursive descent parser. But just ad-hoc parsing without being informed by a grammar is pretty much waiting for disaster. [1] [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Stanford, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources