6 ms·

Create your own programming language in JavaScript

177 points by fogus 15y ago

aoe 15y ago
Are there any other good tutorials on creating a toy programming language? Something that teaches about lexers, parsers, etc.
- eterps 15y ago
  These are my favorite resources: Compiler Construction: http://www.ethoberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/CBEAll.pdf http://www.ethoberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/CBEAll.pdf The Elements of Computing Systems: http://amzn.to/GQycqj http://amzn.to/GQycqj MetaCompilers: http://www.bayfronttechnologies.com/mc_tutorial.html http://www.bayfronttechnologies.com/mc_tutorial.html How to Create Your Own Freaking Awesome Programming Language: http://createyourproglang.com/ http://createyourproglang.com/ Bootstrapping a simple compiler from nothing: http://www.rano.org/bcompiler.html http://www.rano.org/bcompiler.html
  - fogus 15y ago
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "How to Create Your Own Freaking Awesome Programming Language" the motivation for CoffeeScript. That alone should be enough motivation for sending your money that way.
    - rbxbx 15y ago
      You're correct. That's why the first version was written in Ruby :)
  - irahul 15y ago
    To add to the list, Peter Norwig's lisp interpreter is a short, concise introduction to interpreters. http://norvig.com/lispy.html http://norvig.com/lispy.html http://norvig.com/lispy2.html http://norvig.com/lispy2.html
    - zerd 15y ago
      Another one I recommend, because it starts with codegen and works its way back: Writing a compiler in Ruby, bottom up: http://www.hokstad.com/compiler http://www.hokstad.com/compiler
  - raganwald 15y ago
    My (pricey) favourite is Lisp In Small Pieces: http://www.amazon.com/Lisp-Small-Pieces-Christian-Queinnec/dp/0521545668?tag=duckduckgo-d-20 http://www.amazon.com/Lisp-Small-Pieces-Christian-Queinnec/d... Note that Peter Norvig gives it a five-star review. (The affiliate link benefits DuckDuckGo.)
- RodgerTheGreat 15y ago
  You must read JonesForth, a literate program which starts from x86 assembly and builds up a complete Forth environment: https://github.com/chengchangwu/jonesforth https://github.com/chengchangwu/jonesforth
- tomp 15y ago
  Check out Andrej Bauer's Programming language Zoo for some simple languages implemented in OCaml. Although he focuses more on the implementation/runtime semantics than on syntax. http://andrej.com/plzoo/ http://andrej.com/plzoo/
DanI-S 15y ago
I love the idea of offering your own mini-course. Teaching is by far the fastest way of cementing your knowledge of a subject. It would be great if someone could create a platform /'app store' for providing stuff like this, free or otherwise.
- JocoProductions 15y ago
  I believe Udemy.com does very similar to this and has a wide variety of courses.
  - DanI-S 15y ago
    That's very cool, thanks. I'd heard the name before, but never checked it out.
- eberfreitas 15y ago
  The guys from Envato just released a tutorial marketplace: http://marketplace.tutsplus.com/ http://marketplace.tutsplus.com/
emeraldd 15y ago
I ran through something like this a couple of years ago and found it to be one of the most entertaining side projects I had worked on in a long while. Scheme from Scratch - http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/scheme-from-scratch-introduction http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/scheme-from-scratch-introdu...
- fogus 15y ago
  I admired (and still do) your posts very much. Thank you for them.
  - emeraldd 15y ago
    As a note, I just followed along with Peter, using his posts to get a handle on scheme. Mine was https://github.com/arlaneenalra/Bootstrap-Scheme https://github.com/arlaneenalra/Bootstrap-Scheme
leon_ 15y ago
I bet he will be building some RPN language ... which is a rather boring task.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
You can also just fork one of the many that are out there. Makes it easier than starting from scratch (although I realize for some people that eliminates the fun part). I'm liking Sibilant a lot: http://sibilantjs.info http://sibilantjs.info
wingspan 15y ago
Why redirect from nathansuniversity.com to nathansuniversity.appspot.com? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
- dbh937 15y ago
  He might think he'll get a lot of traffic, so google's servers would help.
spacemanaki 15y ago
This is also starting in 3 weeks: http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs262 http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs262
- dbh937 15y ago
  Thats learning about different programming languages... Not creating your own.
  - MaxGabriel 15y ago
    Check the syllabus; you create a Javascript/HTML parser and learn about syntax trees, grammars, etc. So the content will be similar to creating your own programming language.
  - spacemanaki 15y ago
    Both of these are basically introductory Programming Languages classes (with a capital P and L, in other words the study of programming languages themselves). I'm not really sure how you could create your own language without learning about different languages.
bliss 15y ago
i created a programming language of sorts in javascript, it was awful to code in (stored code as strings and used eval to run everything), but it did work - it is used for creating macros on an in-house billing system and only worked under ie6 trusted (which was the mandated browser) - more modern browsers balked at the cross site scripting exploit it took advantage of, but it was pretty useful way to deploy batch scripts as a bookmark. will share if anyone dares!
cconroy 15y ago
I like his teaching style. To get a sense for yourself check out http://nathansjslessons.appspot.com http://nathansjslessons.appspot.com where he covers functions as values, closures, and CSP in javascript. I dunno about you guys but I seem to spend almost all my professional time programming in javascript these days. This is perfect!
jhuni 15y ago
Why build a programming language in a language other then Lisp?

177 points by fogus 15y ago

aoe 15y ago

Are there any other good tutorials on creating a toy programming language? Something that teaches about lexers, parsers, etc.

eterps 15y ago
These are my favorite resources: Compiler Construction: http://www.ethoberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/CBEAll.pdf http://www.ethoberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/CBEAll.pdf The Elements of Computing Systems: http://amzn.to/GQycqj http://amzn.to/GQycqj MetaCompilers: http://www.bayfronttechnologies.com/mc_tutorial.html http://www.bayfronttechnologies.com/mc_tutorial.html How to Create Your Own Freaking Awesome Programming Language: http://createyourproglang.com/ http://createyourproglang.com/ Bootstrapping a simple compiler from nothing: http://www.rano.org/bcompiler.html http://www.rano.org/bcompiler.html
- fogus 15y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "How to Create Your Own Freaking Awesome Programming Language" the motivation for CoffeeScript. That alone should be enough motivation for sending your money that way.
  - rbxbx 15y ago
    You're correct. That's why the first version was written in Ruby :)
- irahul 15y ago
  To add to the list, Peter Norwig's lisp interpreter is a short, concise introduction to interpreters. http://norvig.com/lispy.html http://norvig.com/lispy.html http://norvig.com/lispy2.html http://norvig.com/lispy2.html
  - zerd 15y ago
    Another one I recommend, because it starts with codegen and works its way back: Writing a compiler in Ruby, bottom up: http://www.hokstad.com/compiler http://www.hokstad.com/compiler
- raganwald 15y ago
  My (pricey) favourite is Lisp In Small Pieces: http://www.amazon.com/Lisp-Small-Pieces-Christian-Queinnec/dp/0521545668?tag=duckduckgo-d-20 http://www.amazon.com/Lisp-Small-Pieces-Christian-Queinnec/d... Note that Peter Norvig gives it a five-star review. (The affiliate link benefits DuckDuckGo.)
RodgerTheGreat 15y ago
You must read JonesForth, a literate program which starts from x86 assembly and builds up a complete Forth environment: https://github.com/chengchangwu/jonesforth https://github.com/chengchangwu/jonesforth
tomp 15y ago
Check out Andrej Bauer's Programming language Zoo for some simple languages implemented in OCaml. Although he focuses more on the implementation/runtime semantics than on syntax. http://andrej.com/plzoo/ http://andrej.com/plzoo/

DanI-S 15y ago

I love the idea of offering your own mini-course. Teaching is by far the fastest way of cementing your knowledge of a subject. It would be great if someone could create a platform /'app store' for providing stuff like this, free or otherwise.

JocoProductions 15y ago
I believe Udemy.com does very similar to this and has a wide variety of courses.
- DanI-S 15y ago
  That's very cool, thanks. I'd heard the name before, but never checked it out.
eberfreitas 15y ago
The guys from Envato just released a tutorial marketplace: http://marketplace.tutsplus.com/ http://marketplace.tutsplus.com/

emeraldd 15y ago

I ran through something like this a couple of years ago and found it to be one of the most entertaining side projects I had worked on in a long while. Scheme from Scratch - http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/scheme-from-scratch-introduction http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/scheme-from-scratch-introdu...

fogus 15y ago
I admired (and still do) your posts very much. Thank you for them.
- emeraldd 15y ago
  As a note, I just followed along with Peter, using his posts to get a handle on scheme. Mine was https://github.com/arlaneenalra/Bootstrap-Scheme https://github.com/arlaneenalra/Bootstrap-Scheme

leon_ 15y ago

I bet he will be building some RPN language ... which is a rather boring task.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago

You can also just fork one of the many that are out there. Makes it easier than starting from scratch (although I realize for some people that eliminates the fun part). I'm liking Sibilant a lot: http://sibilantjs.info http://sibilantjs.info

wingspan 15y ago

Why redirect from nathansuniversity.com to nathansuniversity.appspot.com? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

dbh937 15y ago
He might think he'll get a lot of traffic, so google's servers would help.

spacemanaki 15y ago

This is also starting in 3 weeks: http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs262 http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs262

dbh937 15y ago
Thats learning about different programming languages... Not creating your own.
- MaxGabriel 15y ago
  Check the syllabus; you create a Javascript/HTML parser and learn about syntax trees, grammars, etc. So the content will be similar to creating your own programming language.
- spacemanaki 15y ago
  Both of these are basically introductory Programming Languages classes (with a capital P and L, in other words the study of programming languages themselves). I'm not really sure how you could create your own language without learning about different languages.

bliss 15y ago

i created a programming language of sorts in javascript, it was awful to code in (stored code as strings and used eval to run everything), but it did work - it is used for creating macros on an in-house billing system and only worked under ie6 trusted (which was the mandated browser) - more modern browsers balked at the cross site scripting exploit it took advantage of, but it was pretty useful way to deploy batch scripts as a bookmark. will share if anyone dares!

cconroy 15y ago

I like his teaching style. To get a sense for yourself check out http://nathansjslessons.appspot.com http://nathansjslessons.appspot.com where he covers functions as values, closures, and CSP in javascript. I dunno about you guys but I seem to spend almost all my professional time programming in javascript these days. This is perfect!

jhuni 15y ago

Why build a programming language in a language other then Lisp?