My lexical analysis talk for the Twin Cities Languages User Group has been scheduled for Thu Apr 09 2009:
Inside Lexical Analysis
The first step in any source compilation is to analyze the source code's syntax so that it can be understood and translated into a target instruction set. But just how does this step work? In this talk, I'll discuss lexical analysis: the process by which a file full of code is systematically dissected into the identifiers, keywords and symbols that make up the source. Included will be a discussion on regular expressions, state machines, the tools used for lexical analysis today, and how all of this might be implemented in today's .NET world.
Many thanks to Jason Bock for the invitation to speak. Having a concrete date is a good thing, as it gives me even further motivation to shore up all of this lexical analysis work into something formal that I can actually present.
See you there (unless you don’t show up .. in that case, I guess I won’t see you there. So show up. Or don’t. But I hope you do.)!