Lua a nice start, here is a walk-through that I have saved from somewhere: - lmathlib.c, lstrlib.c: get familiar with the external C API. Don't bother with the

Lua a nice start, here is a walk-through that I have saved from somewhere: - lmathlib.c, lstrlib.c: get familiar with the external C API. Don't bother with the pattern matcher though. Just the easy functions. - lapi.c: Check how the API is implemented internally. Only skim this to get a feeling for the code. Cross-reference to lua.h and luaconf.h as needed. - lobject.h: tagged values and object representation. skim through this first. you'll want to keep a window with this file open all the time. - lstate.h: state objects. ditto. - lopcodes.h: bytecode instruction format and opcode definitions. easy. - lvm.c: scroll down to luaV_execute, the main interpreter loop. see how all of the instructions are implemented. skip the details for now. reread later. - ldo.c: calls, stacks, exceptions, coroutines. tough read. - lstring.c: string interning. cute, huh? - ltable.c: hash tables and arrays. tricky code. - ltm.c: metamethod handling, reread all of lvm.c now. You may want to reread lapi.c now. - ldebug.c: surprise waiting for you. abstract interpretation is used to find object names for tracebacks. does bytecode verification, too. - lparser.c, lcode.c: recursive descent parser, targetting a register-based VM. start from chunk() and work your way through. read the expression parser and the code generator parts last. - lgc.c: incremental garbage collector. take your time.