Inventing Wheels (was: Re: Wanted: Expression Evaluator)

[Will Crowder]

In article <90052.234131CMH117 at psuvm.psu.edu> CMH117 at psuvm.psu.edu (Charles Hannum) writes:
 >
 >>In article <4365 at jarthur.Claremont.EDU> ssdken at jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Ken
 >>Nelson) writes:
 >>>Hi:
 >>>
 >>>   I need the C source for an expression evaluator. Something that can
 >>>[stuff deleted]
 >>>   Anybody have such a beast????
 >
 >I have an O(n) parser that I think will do what you want.  It uses a stack-
 >based algorithm which I invented and later discovered that I was not the first
 >to do so ...  <sigh>
 >
 >
 >Virtually,
 >- Charles Martin Hannum II       "Klein bottle for sale ... inquire within."

Sigh.  Don't you hate it when people have your ideas before you do?  I mean,
I thought, way back when, that I could have made a killing when I invented
linked lists and hashing with open chaining, but <sigh>, somebody beat me
to it.  There is something to be said for reinventing the wheel, and that 
is that one tends to learn more creating one's own tools rather than using
"black box" stuff.  The problem, of course, is that it takes more time.

Maybe one day, I'll invent a *new* wheel....

Will