How to create a language these days?

Question

I need to get around to writing that programming language I\'ve been meaning to write. How do you kids do it these days? I\'ve been out of the loop for over a decade; are yo

Answer 1

There's a big shortcut to implementing a language that I don't see in the other answers here. If you use one of Lukasiewicz's "unparenthesized" forms (ie. Forward Polish or Reverse Polish) you don't need a parser at all! With reverse polish, the dependencies go right-to-left so you simply execute each token as it's scanned. With forward polish, it's the reverse of that, so you actually execute the program "backwards", simplifying subexpressions until reaching the starting token.

To understand why this works, you should investigate the 3 primary tree-traversal algorithms: pre-order, in-order, post-order. These three traversals are the inverse of the parsing task that a language reader (i. parser) has to perform. Only the in-order notation "requires" a recursive decent to re-construct the expression tree. With the other two, you can get away with just a stack.

This may require more "thinking' and less "implementing".

BTW, if you've already found an answer (this question is a year old), you can post that and accept it.