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in reply to Marpa -- Partial grammar match does not result in failure

1) Why does the $p_obj->read call not fail in these two cases?

That's the archetypal problem with libraries that complex; they have so many failure modes for any given input; it is impossible to imagine them all, much less test them all or even a statistically significant subset of them.

Upshot: despite the usually -- and in this case, definitely -- effusive and over-elaborate claims, they are black holes to the user. Ie. Their users have no hope of understanding, much less correcting, any failure mode that the author hasn't considered.


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  • Comment on Re: Marpa -- Partial grammar match does not result in failure

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Re^2: Marpa -- Partial grammar match does not result in failure
by amon (Scribe) on May 08, 2014 at 01:54 UTC

    While you are generally correct that complex software is complex, and thus invariably contains bugs, in this case the behaviours of read() and value() are well-defined and consistent with the observed behaviour – it's all there in the docs.

    Understanding them is often difficult, and examples are sparse, but it's by no means an impenetrable black hole of knowledge. Please don't spread ignorant FUD and don't assume the worst by default, sometimes there actually is a good explanation.