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Show HN: Regular expression compilation visualized

compiler.org

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Re: Show HN: Regular expression compilation visualized

#2

Post by allanrbo »

This is an amazing interactive learning tool. Kudos! I vaguely remember from a "computer science modelling" course at uni, learning how to do this process by hand, from the textbook "Introduction To Automata Theory Languages , and Computation". Wish we had had this tool back then.

Re: Show HN: Regular expression compilation visualized

#4

Post by JoelJacobson »

allanrbo wrote: post #2

This is an amazing interactive learning tool. Kudos! I vaguely remember from a "computer science modelling" course at uni, learning how to do this process by hand, from the textbook "Introduction To Automata Theory Languages , and Computation". Wish we had had this tool back then.

Thanks for the kind words. I made it for fun during a compiler course held by professor Christian Schulte at the Royal Institute of Technology here in Sweden. My original plan was to make similar visualizations for all the different algorithms in Christian's compiler course, but tragically he passed away recently.

Christian is the main designer and developer of many great open source projects, including Unison, Gecode and Mozart. https://chschulte.github.io/software.html

R.I.P. Christian, you were an amazing professor and person. I miss you.

Re: Show HN: Regular expression compilation visualized

#5

Post by filterfish »

JoelJacobson wrote: post #4
allanrbo wrote: post #2

This is an amazing interactive learning tool. Kudos! I vaguely remember from a "computer science modelling" course at uni, learning how to do this process by hand, from the textbook "Introduction To Automata Theory Languages , and Computation". Wish we had had this tool back then.

Thanks for the kind words. I made it for fun during a compiler course held by professor Christian Schulte at the Royal Institute of Technology here in Sweden. My original plan was to make similar visualizations for all the different algorithms in Christian's compiler course, but tragically he passed away recently. Christian is the main designer and developer of many great open source projects, including Unison, Gecod…

I would like to echo @allanrbo kind words I to think it's a great way to understand regular expressions and their various implementations. I was a little confused about how to change the regex but I'm often confused so it's no reflection on you! I think Christian would have been proud to see what you've done with his ideas.

Re: Show HN: Regular expression compilation visualized

#9

Post by JoelJacobson »

lionkor wrote: post #8

This is really cool, im just really surprised that you can afford that domain and just put one thing on it :D

Heh, the idea was to put more things on it, would be cool to visualize more algorithms. Too bad ReasonML became such a mess, I really liked the coding experience in it. Now I would probably need to look for alternatives before implementing more algorithms.

I actually bought compiler.org to get a nice personal email address after selling a company I co-founded, but I didn't realize how difficult it is to spell "compiler" for non-geeks. Is it with a "k" or "c" and "m" or "n"? Bummer. I've bought a new one now which is hopefully easier to spell. :)

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