IDL, yacc, bison, compiler, flex

when i finish my documentation and get it reviewed i can start a new more fun task. porting a IDL compiler that is made using lex and yacc from solaris to linux. shouldnt be that hard, if the student that wrote it wasnt too lazy and wrote awful c code...does mean i have to learn some more C ..bbrrrr....just wondering what ppl use these days when building compilers, lex&yacc are well old, has there been any advance in the field of compiler creation? would expect that there are new tecniques and methods...*wonders*

c is ugly!!!int long blah; how is that more clear then blah = 3,never mind..

tim