Building a Rust parser using Pest and PEG

The text delves into the complexities of creating efficient lexer-parser pairs for parsing complex structures, highlighting the advantages of using parser generators over manually coding parsers. It focuses on the use of Pest, a parsing tool for Rust, which leverages Parsing Expression Grammar (PEG) to define parsing rules. The document explains key characteristics of Pest, such as greedy matching, ordered alternate matches, and no backtracking, and provides examples of defining rules using Pest’s syntax. A practical demonstration is given through a project that uses Pest to parse a simplified version of HTML, showcasing how to handle tags, text, and attributes. The discussion extends to the potential of creating parsers for other languages, including a subset of Rust’s syntax, and even designing a custom language syntax. Overall, the text emphasizes Pest's flexibility and efficiency in parser generation, encouraging its use for building scalable and maintainable parsing solutions.