Lexical Analyzer

[akssps011]

I am new to compiler construction. I wanted to use lex tool. I found these two while searching on the internet.
1) Gnu Flex
2) Pargen
Any other better option available ?
But I am not able to use them. How do I get start with it ? I am not getting how to use these tools ?
Please help

[Salem]

> Any other better option available ?
What's your definition of "better"?

> How do I get start with it ?
Read the manual.

> I am not getting how to use these tools ?
Read a tutorial, then read the manual.

[akssps011]

By better, as I mentioned before, I didn't know about these tools. What I knew was just a "lex tool" but i didn't find anything exactly of that name.
I am using windows, when I installed flex, all the manuals in various formats got installed, but its given nowhere how to use it for lexical analysis.

[Salem]

Or read a book
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596155971/

[akssps011]

Thanx for the book link. But this deals with linux and I am using windows

[Salem]

That's odd.

Because the book deals with how to use the tools, not what OS they're running on (which is irrelevant).

[Narue]

>I am new to compiler construction.
Cool. It's a fun an interesting area.

>I wanted to use lex tool.
I strongly recommend writing everything by hand at first. You can use generators when you understand the principles behind the generators and want to work faster. It's much like using a binary search tree library. A good idea in practice, but you shouldn't eschew learning how to write binary search trees simply because the library is available.