How to learn about parsing

[email protected] (Chris Warren)
Newsgroups perl.recdescent
Organization In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.
Message-ID <[email protected]>
My apologies if this question is so basic that it's off-topic for the
list.

As part of my job, I have to do a lot of work munging message files;
each file contains information about multiple messages. After writing a
few programs that get specific bits of information out of these files,
I'm starting to think that a proper parser is what's needed, and any
time I need information out of the message files, I can use this
standard parser to get whatever I need.

My first problem with this theory of mine is that I don't have a formal
computer-science education, and I don't think I understand parsers (and,
more on-topic, Parse::RecDescent) well enough to write one. Can anyone
recommend a good book or tutorial on the subject of parsers, or should I
stick to piecemeal solutions until I find a computer-science degree?

Thank you.

csw
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