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Ask HN: Have any of you ever wanted to write a compiler or interpreter?
8 points by ncarlson on Dec 22, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments
Hi everyone,

I'm looking for feedback on a project I would like to start. Basically, I would like to start an educational project built around compiler and interpreter design.

I remember wanting to learn how to write a compiler for the longest time. However, each time I'd approach the subject to learn more, I would run into some kind of hurdle and eventually get distracted by other projects. The hurdle usually came in the form of poor access to good educational information.

There are books available like the famous Dragon book. However, I feel that there needs to be an alternative entry vector into the field of compiler and interpreter design. The project I'm considering would consist of a simple yet fully functioning compiler (or interpreter) with a heavy amount of documentation. Beyond this trivial implementation, subjects like JIT, stack vs register, dispatching methods, and compiler frameworks could be explored.

I have a small interpreter half written for a compiler design class I took at university. But I also plan on building a web site to hold all the documentation and educational material.

Would any of you benefit from a project like this? I'm willing to go it alone for quite a while, but eventually I would need help from the open source community.

Thanks, Nick




I have had a go at writing both a small interpreter and a small compiler. I found both exercises intellectually rewarding and will probably come back to this at some time in the future.

I used the .NET platform and the IL assembler language as my output so I suppose I kept some distance from the "metal" but otherwise explored the challenges.

I was reminded of the sheer pleasure of this activity When I recently re-read Douglas Crockford's chapter in the "Beautiful Code" book. In it he describes a short but elegant interpreter written in Javascript.


This sounds interesting. It's been a while, but the compiler I built for a project class I in college was the most satisfying thing I've ever built.

What language are you thinking of implementing?


Take a look at OMeta and Factor.




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