Path: csiph.com!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: "Jonathan Thornburg" Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Good practical language and OS agnostic text? Date: 21 Apr 2012 15:04:14 GMT Organization: Compilers Central Lines: 26 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <12-04-059@comp.compilers> References: <12-04-019@comp.compilers> <12-04-021@comp.compilers> <12-04-040@comp.compilers> <12-04-048@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com X-Trace: leila.iecc.com 1335043130 23079 64.57.183.58 (21 Apr 2012 21:18:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:18:50 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: books, interpreter, comment Posted-Date: 21 Apr 2012 17:18:50 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:602 BartC wrote: > Start with a very simple language. Perhaps even a version of Basic (as a > useful language consisting of Let, If, Goto, Print (and perhaps Input) can > be created without any structured statements; only expressions need > recursive methods to deal with). You might consider also interpreting the > language rather than translating to a target language. And use an easy, > dynamic language to implement it all in. Stay away from C, C++, or anything > else with curly braces. > > (Sorry, I can't recommend any books because I haven't read any...) Another book of interest is P. J. Brown "Writing Interactive Compilers and Interpreters" (Wiley, 1981) It's a completely non-mathematical (& pretty "basic", i.e., assuming very little prior knowledge) tour through what's needed to write a Basic interpreter. -- -- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]" Dept of Astronomy & IUCSS, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA [It's not a bad book. It's quite old, but you can usually find a copy in the usual online used bookstores. -John]