Yeah, FWIW, I think you should start at the bottom[1] with bits, bytes, RAM, and a wee CPU (like Wirth's RISC for Project Oberon[2]) and then META-II [3] seems

Yeah, FWIW, I think you should start at the bottom[1] with bits, bytes, RAM, and a wee CPU (like Wirth's RISC for Project Oberon[2]) and then META-II [3] seems like the best way forward to conventional languages. (Or go with Forth and Joy and head right past Lambda Calculus and straight to Category Theory[4].) On the other hand you could start with predicate logic and teach Prolog as a calculator for same, then develop all the low- and mid-level software (your emulator and compiler) using Prolog, then implement a Prolog interpreter in your language to close the loop. [1] http://phoenixbureau.github.io/PigeonComputer/curiculum.html http://phoenixbureau.github.io/PigeonComputer/curiculum.html [2] https://pythonoberon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://pythonoberon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/META_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/META_II [3] http://conal.net/papers/compiling-to-categories/ http://conal.net/papers/compiling-to-categories/