Book Image

Build Your Own Programming Language - Second Edition

By : Clinton L. Jeffery
Book Image

Build Your Own Programming Language - Second Edition

By: Clinton L. Jeffery

Overview of this book

There are many reasons to build a programming language: out of necessity, as a learning exercise, or just for fun. Whatever your reasons, this book gives you the tools to succeed. You’ll build the frontend of a compiler for your language and generate a lexical analyzer and parser using Lex and YACC tools. Then you’ll explore a series of syntax tree traversals before looking at code generation for a bytecode virtual machine or native code. In this edition, a new chapter has been added to assist you in comprehending the nuances and distinctions between preprocessors and transpilers. Code examples have been modernized, expanded, and rigorously tested, and all content has undergone thorough refreshing. You’ll learn to implement code generation techniques using practical examples, including the Unicon Preprocessor and transpiling Jzero code to Unicon. You'll move to domain-specific language features and learn to create them as built-in operators and functions. You’ll also cover garbage collection. Dr. Jeffery’s experiences building the Unicon language are used to add context to the concepts, and relevant examples are provided in both Unicon and Java so that you can follow along in your language of choice. By the end of this book, you'll be able to build and deploy your own domain-specific language.
Table of Contents (27 chapters)
1
Section I: Programming Language Frontends
7
Section II: Syntax Tree Traversals
13
Section III: Code Generation and Runtime Systems
22
Section IV: Appendix
23
Answers
24
Other Books You May Enjoy
25
Index

Syntax Coloring in an IDE

Creating a useful programming language requires more than just a compiler or interpreter that makes it possible to run programs—it requires an ecosystem of tools for developers. This ecosystem often includes debuggers, online help, or an integrated development environment, commonly called an IDE. An IDE can be broadly defined as any programming environment in which source code editing, compilation, linking steps (if any), and execution can all be performed within the same user interface. A good modern IDE typically includes many additional features, such as a graphical user interface builder and integrated debugger.

This chapter addresses some of the challenges of supporting your programming language in an IDE to provide syntax coloring and visual feedback about syntax errors. One reason that you want to learn how to do this is that many programmers will not take your language seriously unless it has an IDE with such features. We will start by...