Re^5: Writing a Programming Language in Perl

[ikegami]

You need to be able to parse the code before you can compile or execute it. It helps you by creating the parser for you.

[programmer99]

So the parsed code goes through a compiler? And then it is executed?

[chromatic]

A compiler (or interpreter) has a few parts.

A parser converts a file full of source code into a data structure.

An interpreter traverses that data structure and executes the appropriate commands for each significant node in the structure.

A compiler transforms that data structure and emits something else. Perhaps this other is object code for a specific processor or perhaps it's binary code for a virtual machine or perhaps it's source code for another language entirely.

If you look at compiling and implementing languages this way, you already know the general technique. (everything is a compiler).

[programmer99]

So what code is needed to start what I am trying to do?