4: I've found nothing substitutes for a good teacher. Maybe try Coursera or something of the like? On 6: You may want to write an interpreter as a first step.

4: I've found nothing substitutes for a good teacher. Maybe try Coursera or something of the like? On 6: You may want to write an interpreter as a first step. Google "bootstrap scheme" for a guy who implemented a scheme-like language in 22 steps. It's pretty cool, I'm following it right now. If you're looking Look into LLVM. It's a great backend and is practical knowledge if you like what you're doing. Adding onto languages, if you want the esoteric stuff, look at Factor, or Smalltalk (for more image based programming). Different paradigms are cool.