Crafting Interpreters (craftinginterpreters.com)

Article summary

The article discusses the book 'Crafting Interpreters', which provides a comprehensive guide to implementing a full-featured scripting language. The book covers high-level concepts and gritty details, and is available in various formats. The author, Robert Nystrom, has experience in language design and development, having worked on the Dart language at Google. The book aims to help readers understand the foundations of programming language design and implementation.

Main themes

• Programming language design
• Compiler implementation
• Language development
• Book review
• Dart language
• Compiler techniques

What commenters say

• Creating a programming language is a significant undertaking, but can be a valuable learning experience.
• Some commenters believe that implementing a simple language can be done with relatively little work, while others argue that even simple languages require significant effort.
• The book 'Crafting Interpreters' is considered a valuable resource for learning about programming language design and implementation, and its concepts are still relevant today.
• Experience with compiler design and implementation can have benefits beyond just compiler development, such as improved understanding of recursive algorithms and data structures.
• Some readers appreciate the book's approach and presentation, finding it helpful for internalizing complex concepts.
• The Dart language, which the author works on, is seen as underappreciated and has impressive features, including a VM, AOT compiler, and first-class JavaScript interop.
• There are differing opinions on the usefulness of traditional compiler tools like lex and yacc, with some finding them unforgiving and others valuing their structure and portability.
• Hand-coded recursive descent parsers are preferred by some over traditional tools due to their flexibility and lack of magic variables and macros.