Why is parsing considered solved?
"Why is parsing considered solved?" is the newest entry on my Ocean of Awareness blog.
It is often said that parsing is a "solved problem". Given the level of frustration with the state of the art, the underuse of the very powerful technique of Language-Oriented Programming due to problematic tools, and the vast superiority of human parsing ability over computers, this requires explanation.On what grounds would someone say that parsing is "solved"? To understand this, we need to look at the history of Parsing Theory. In fact, we'll have to start decades before computer Parsing Theory exists, with a now nearly-extinct school of linguistics, and its desire to put the field on strictly scientific basis.
I blog about Perl, with a focus on parsing and Marpa, my parsing algorithm based on Jay Earley's.