Lazy Lexing is Fast

This paper introduces a set of combinators for building lexical analysers in a lazy functional language. During lexical analysis, the combinators generate a deterministic, table-driven analyser on the fly. Consequently, the presented method combines the efficiency of off-line scanner generators with the flexibility of the combinator approach. The method makes essential use of the lazy semantics of the implementation language Haskell. Finally, the paper discusses benchmarks of a scanner for the programming language C.