ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Most vexing parse

Ok kiddo, so you know how sometimes adults can tell you to do something, but they use really confusing words and you get confused and don't know what to do?

Well, sometimes computer programs feel the same way when we try to tell them what to do. They might understand some of what we are saying, but other times they might get confused and not know what we mean.

When the computer program tries to understand what we want it to do, it goes through a process called parsing. This is like trying to figure out what someone means when they say something unclear or confusing.

Sometimes, the way we tell the computer program to do something can be especially confusing or unclear, and the computer program gets stuck trying to figure out what we mean. This is called a "most vexing parse."

It's like when someone tells you to do something but they use words that could mean different things, and you're not sure what they really want you to do. This can be frustrating and confusing for everyone involved!

So, when people talk about a "most vexing parse" in computer programming, they mean a situation where the code is written in a way that is difficult for the program to understand, and it gets confused trying to figure out what to do.