Whimsy has to parse a lot of text files. Whilst these may have a preferred format, there is nothing to prevent incorrect syntax being used.
Much of the parsing assumes that the format is correct, and anything that does not match is completely ignored. This means that entries can be silently overlooked (see PR84 for an example). Where possible, I think it would be better to ensure that the whole file is processed, and any unrecognised entries are reported rather than being silently discarded. This suggests perhaps using some kind of generic parser code that breaks up the file and passes it on to be handled. In the past I have used yacc/lex (and bison), but these may be overkill. It seems to me that Ruby is likely well-suited to writing such code. I wonder if anyone has experience of writing such code, or maybe there is a Gem? Sebb
