ds604 / nospoon

Talk+workshop series on foundational understanding through implementation.

As introduced in the first talk, this series will take folks through the process of creating programming languages in order to better design flexible layered systems.

Prerequisite: Javascript - the really good parts

Links to content

Check out the file slang.js. This is our starting point for making a language from a very basic idea of what a program is and actually buliding a working interpreter for it.

1. If you want to browse the code in a readable manner, you can view slang.js.md.

2. If you like to have a single PDF to read, see slang.js.pdf.

3. Docco docs for slang are also available in the docs/ folder. To view them online, go to https://imaginea.github.io/nospoon/

FAQ on using Javascript

We'll be using Javascript as the underlying implementation language in this series. Initially this may feel like "cheating" because we're already using a language which has some powerful features in it. However, you'll see how we'll quickly move out of the realm of Javascript and will be dealing with concepts that you wouldn't have heard of in the Javascript world.

Why Javascript as the implementation language?

The reason is simple, really - no installation required (usually).

You probably already have a browser installed in your system. Likely Chrome or Firefox. That's all that will be required to follow through this series. Both these browsers also have great dev and debug environments for Javascript as well, and expose a rich set of UI and networking features.

So now I need to learn a complicated language first?

For this series to be meaningful, you do need to be a programmer with some strong exposure to a main stream programming language like Java or C++ or Javascript. This series is not intended for total newbies to the programming world.

So buckle up and pickup a little Javascript first. We've identified a small, sensible, yet powerful subset of Javascript that you should be able to pick up in an hour or so if you know Java or C++. For those who already know Javascript, we're going to force you to use this kernel subset only in the interest of everyone else.

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Great .. now I'll never be able to implement a "real" language

Check out Emscripten. It is a compiler that compiles several programming languages that compile to native code into Javascript! Yes, including C/C++. Javascript is a "real" programming language. Get over it.

Seriously, you'll realize how easy it is to "retarget" to any other compilation system if compiled languages are what you're looking into.

Stepping back, this series is not about teaching you to implement a generic programming language. You might at the end, but it is to teach you enough principles so that you can create languages appropriate to various application domains as and when needed and be able to articulate the advantages of a language-centric design strategy.