Hi everyone. Thanks for the speedy replies. Let me elaborate on my language and situation. The language I have in mind is a statically typed, hybrid (OOP + functional), strict language. It contains both functional and imperitive features (much the same as OCaml/F#) with ideas from haskell, scheme, smalltalk, mozart/oz, F#, C#. The syntax is kept as succint as possible, adding things that I think would be useful that are not defined in any of the inspirational languages. As for the target language, im not quite sure yet. I am doing a lot of work in .NET/C# at the moment, but I would eventually like to use my own programming language, instead of C#. I would also like to use my language for linux programming, so I will eventually support both Windows and Linux environments. My aim with this project is to further explore haskell and deepen my understanding of it, while at the same time creating something useful where I can explore my own ideas about programmnig languages and concepts. I don't really intend to write "the next programming language" used by billions of people. If others find it useful, that's awsome. I definitely intend to use my language for my own projects and to make it freely availble on the net. So it is not just for learning or fun, it is more focused on implementing a decent programming language that can be used for commercial applications (and fun). The compiler for my language should have a decent compile time, comparing to compilers written in C. The approach that I have in mind is to piggy back on existing languages/compilers until their implementation is no longer adequite or I have time to write my own code generator. So the first stage would be something like translate to C# and then use the C# compiler to obtain an executable. I want the first steps to go as quick as possible so that I can refine the language and test ideas quickly, and once the language has stabalized, concentrarte on my own full fledged compiler (if it is necessary). I think I will try Parsec as a starting point for creating a parser. Thanks again everyone. Regards Rouan
On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 4:17 AM, Rouan van Dalen
As for the target language, im not quite sure yet. I am doing a lot of work in .NET/C# at the moment, but I would eventually like to use my own programming language, instead of C#. I would also like to use my language for linux programming, so I will eventually support both Windows and Linux environments.
C# seems like a fine choice for target language, at least for starters. The CLR is a great virtual machine, with a good garbage collector and a mature JIT engine. Mono is also pretty nice and will give you support for linux.
My aim with this project is to further explore haskell and deepen my understanding of it, while at the same time creating something useful where I can explore my own ideas about programmnig languages and concepts. I don't really intend to write "the next programming language" used by billions of people. If others find it useful, that's awsome. I definitely intend to use my language for my own projects and to make it freely availble on the net. So it is not just for learning or fun, it is more focused on implementing a decent programming language that can be used for commercial applications (and fun).
Great! Yes, absolutely write your compiler in your language itself after you have bootstrapped a little bit of it. This will stress-test the viability of your language to complex symbol manipulation tasks, and also give you the kind of self-referential improvements you see from such a situation.
The compiler for my language should have a decent compile time, comparing to compilers written in C.
That's not too hard. The design of C is terrible for that. Recompiling every header file each time it is included! With a decent module system and interface format it shouldn't be that hard to compete with C.
The approach that I have in mind is to piggy back on existing languages/compilers until their implementation is no longer adequite or I have time to write my own code generator. So the first stage would be something like translate to C# and then use the C# compiler to obtain an executable. I want the first steps to go as quick as possible so that I can refine the language and test ideas quickly, and once the language has stabalized, concentrarte on my own full fledged compiler (if it is necessary).
I think I will try Parsec as a starting point for creating a parser.
A final bit of advice. A compiler is best as a composition of lots of very small compilers (sans parsers; keep your data structured). Use lots of intermediate formats, and keep the translation between each intermediate format as small as possible. See UHC for an excellent example of this approach. In particular, aim for getting your language down to the smallest core calculus that you can think of. This makes it very easy to write interpreters, code generators and optimizers. A compiler is a large project, but you will safe yourself a lot of pain and complexity if you think of it as a bunch of small ones. Good luck! I'm interested to see what your language looks like (particularly the features you think are missing from your inspriations). And also have fun learning Haskell; you may find your principles of language design changing along the way as a result... :-) Luke
participants (2)
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Luke Palmer -
Rouan van Dalen