6 replies to this topic

[tobeythorn]

I've become interested in programming language design and am trying to make my own language. Do you know if there is a forum like devmaster.net for discussing language design?

Thanks,
-Tobey

[v71]

There isn't a proper forum on language design, but you can google for
parsers and lexers, rcently i have been interested too and i found that there is a lot of theory behind have a look here for now
http://www.relisoft....ject/3stub.html

[tobeythorn]

Maybe I should have posted this in the Lounge. In any case, I did try Google, and apart from forums for specific languages (which I have already be using), I didn't find any forums focused on general language design. Thanks for the link.

[SamuraiCrow]

If you want to make a JIT or static compiler, you might look into using http://www.llvm.org/ to build it. It includes a cross-platform framework and an example tutorial on how to write a parser by hand called the Kaleidoscope Tutorial.

My partner and I am working on a PEG-based parser generator for the LLVM Assembly language so that might be handy for you. It's a subproject of our own programming language which is called Mattathias.

[poita]

Are you looking for tips on language design or compiler/interpreter design? They're quite different things.

If it's the former then I suggest looking up the works of John Backus, Niklaus Wirth, and Alexander Stepanov. I don't really agree with some of their views, but they're very insightful and fundamental to language design. I also suggest you brush up on your abstract algebra, and the theories of formal languages and parsing.

[tobeythorn]

Poita, I'm interested in information/discussion on language design, not compiler/interpreter design. Thanks for those names. Thus far, I've found understanding/deciding how a language should work much more challenging than deciding how to write an interpreter.

[poita]

It certainly is a very tricky task. I've been trying to think up a language for a long time now, but keep hitting brick walls in my design.