I am going to make a compiler for C and looking up on how compilers work on Wikipedia has told me a lot. However, after reading up on lexers has confused me. The Wikipedia page states that:
the GNU Compiler Collection (gcc) uses hand-written lexers
I have tried googling what a hand written lexer and have come up with nothing except for "making a flowchart that describes how it should function", however, isn't that how all software development should be done?
So my question is: "What is a hand written lexer?"
hoc
. They include both hand-written and machine-generated lexers, with some discussion about the differences between them and such.