Krzysztof Kowalczyk • 8/22/2026

Optimizing memory use in markdown parser

This article details the process of optimizing memory usage in a C++ port of a markdown parser (originally from Rust's markdown-rs). The author describes reducing the AST node size from 232 bytes to 16 bytes by eliminating unnecessary fields, using arena allocation, and implementing pointer compression for strings. The post includes benchmarks measuring arena bytes and parsing time for various markdown inputs, showing significant memory reductions. It serves as a technical tutorial on C++ optimization techniques, particularly for parser design and memory efficiency.

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#ast #c #memory optimization