Parsing into Nodes

In my last blog entry I created a parser which loops through text and parses stuff:

Sub Parse()
    While Not EOF()
        ParseThisStuff()
        ParseThatStuff()
    End While
End Sub

Sub ParseThisStuff()
    While Not EOF And NextCharIsThisStuff()
        Write( NextChar() )
    End While
End Sub

Sub ParseThatStuff()
    While Not EOF And NextCharIsThatStuff()
        Write( NextChar() )
    End While
End Sub

That's a pretty simple pattern and is repeatable for all kinds of "Stuff". This is useful because, whenever I parse chunks of stuff they will be written out to "wherever" by the Write method in the ParseStuff routine. It would be better if I could channel the "stuff" into a node for later use and put some smarts into the Node as to how its content is "emit'ted". For example I might want to emit the node contents as Xml or native IL, Html or whatever. This Node class can store "stuff" and selectively render the contents:

Class Node
    Public Text As String
    Public Type As Integer

    Public Sub New(ByVal text As String, ByVal type As Integer)
        Me.Text = text
        Me.Type = type
    End Sub

    Public Function Render() As String
        Return String.Format("<{0}>" & Me.Text & "</{0}>", Me.Type)
    End Function
End Class

Now, whenever I parse "stuff" I can shove it into a node and add it to a collection of nodes. This requires me to alter my general parsing algorithm slightly so that I don't need to create a new Node for each individual char.

'OLD PARSING PATTERN:
Sub ParseWords()
    While Not EOF And Not IsWhitespaceChar( ReadNextChar() )
        Write( NextChar() )
    End While
End Sub

'NEW PARSING PATTERN ALLOWING FOR NODES:
Private Sub ParseWords()
     If Not IsWhitespaceChar( ReadNextChar() ) Then
          Dim startPos As Integer = Textpos()



          While Not EOF() AndAlso Not IsWhitespaceChar( ReadNextChar() )
               GetNextChar()
          End While

          Dim endPos As Integer = Textpos()

          If startPos < endPos Then
               listOfNodes.Add( New Node( str.Substring( startPos, endPos - startPos ), 2 ) )
          End If

     End If
End Sub

Now, when I need to output the contents I can call upon the nodes in my list like so...

Private Sub Render()
    For Each n As Node In listOfNodes
        lbl.Text &= n.Render()
    Next
End Sub