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

Finding redeclared variables

When a variable has been declared, most languages report an error if the same variable is declared again in the same scope. The reason for this is that within a given scope, the name must have a single, well-defined meaning. Trying to declare a new variable would entail allocating some new memory and from then on, mentioning that name would be ambiguous. If the x variable is defined twice, it is unclear to which x any given use refers. You can identify such redeclared variable errors when you insert symbols into the symbol table.

Inserting symbols into the symbol table

The insert() method in the symbol table class calls the language’s underlying hash table API. The method takes a symbol, a Boolean isConst flag, and an optional nested symbol table, for symbols that introduce a new (sub)scope. The Unicon implementation of the symbol table’s insert() method is shown here. If you go to https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Build-Your-Own...