Efficient algorithm for updating a parse tree
As per @Agos request, I turned the comment into an answer.

First, I must admit that I'm not really knowledgeable in this field. Yet I suggest you read the papers Building friendly parsers and Efficient and Flexible Incremental Parsing to have a view of what algorithms were used for incremental parsing before 2000.

For updated treatments, you may take a look at these papers:


Lazy functional incremental parsing (2009)
Practical, incremental, noncanonical parsing: Celentano's method and the Generalized Piecewise LR parsing algorithm (2006)
Incremental validation of XML documents (2004)
Incremental parsing in language-based editors: user needs and how to meet them (2001)
Incremental Parsing and the C Preprocessor (Couldn't find the PDF anywhere. It is from Google cache.)


More info: There are (at least) two approaches to parsing/compilation: 


The batch approach, in which the whole block of code is parsed/compiled.
The incremental approach, in which the document is first parsed/compiled in the batch mode, and then changes are detected and the minimal re-parsing/re-compilation is applied. This approach not only increases the parse/compilation speed, but also helps in IDE nifty features such as background compilation, which is related to lazy compilation. (You can also search about commercial features such as the  IntelliSense).