How to make a simple Programming Language

[soft tusk]

Hello Everyone,
So I want to make a simple Programming Language in Go, but I am not able to find any blog that can help me make one, I found some, but not able to understand what to do, first of all I just want to able to do simple maths like addition subtraction multiplication and division.

[royal forum]

https://interpreterbook.com/

[soft tusk]

i would love to buy it, but my mother wont allow me to buy about something she doesnt understands

[smoky fiber]

I suggest you find it

[stone current]

the most boomer thing ive seen

lmao

[dapper narwhal]

this seems so cool, boutta yoink that asap

[sour gorge]

Also craftinginterpreters.com

Free book

Not in Go

[azure tartan]

^ you can try that also, it's fully free online
it's not in go but it should share the broader concepts
and should be enough for what you need to get started

[royal minnow]

Grow up faster 😂

[soft tusk]

i got the book dont worry 🙂

[soft tusk]

also what do you expect from a 15 y/o kid....?

[royal minnow]

Nice!

[royal minnow]

It was rather a joke, as I know the feeling myself from few years ago haha

[soft tusk]

ok then 😄

[unreal belfry]

Well it's easy to create an interpreted language. I suggest using text/scanner to tokenize your input

[soft tusk]

alright so... I have made a language with the book, now... can anyone help me, I cant seem to find a way to add std lib for it, like math, etc

[unreal belfry]

hmm could u show me your code base?

@soft tusk

[soft tusk]

https://github.com/Jonak-Adipta-Kalita/JAK-Programming-Language

[unreal belfry]

so you want to make go functions and execute them in your language?

[soft tusk]

no, like functions written in the custom lang

[unreal belfry]

so you want to write the std in your own language or write them in go and be able to call them in your language?

[soft tusk]

in my own lang

[unreal belfry]

well if you have function decleration in your language you can do just add your own code into the file that the user wants to execute or make files in your own language then import them into the file that user wants to execute, i would just write the std in golang and make it available in the language

[soft tusk]

hmm, alright I can make the std in golang, but what if the users want to make there custom library and want to import it in the main file? how will I achieve that?

[unreal belfry]

well first you need to know how the lexer works and be able to modify it with no problems

[soft tusk]

that I can do

I can modify all the code in the project

[unreal belfry]

ok thats good, first in here https://github.com/Jonak-Adipta-Kalita/JAK-Programming-Language/blob/main/token/token.go add a new keyword like import
then send me your import keyword syntax

[soft tusk]

you want me to just add the keyword? no lexer parser?

[unreal belfry]

yes i know about the lexer but first we need the syntax for the import keyword

[soft tusk]

use "filename.extension"

[soft tusk]

done

[unreal belfry]

so how would u use it
like
you would do like golang import
use file "filename.extension"
and then with
file you can access functions

like file.<Method>

[soft tusk]

which one do you think is better? (none is better ig, then which do you think is easier?)

lets do use "file.ext" as file?

[unreal belfry]

Yea that could work

[soft tusk]

alright 😄

[unreal belfry]

Then in token.go you need to define use and as keywords and file would be an identifier, in lexer you need to detect "use", to detect the use and as keyword at first it would be an identifier and if it matches use or as then its type is use or as

[soft tusk]

hmm ok

[unreal belfry]

For example in here in my programming language

[soft tusk]

i have to go somewhere I'll do it after I come back

[unreal belfry]

Ok

[soft tusk]

btw I just had to say, if we make a token and keyword in token.go it automatically gets lexed as a identifier

if you got what I meant

[unreal belfry]

Yes I got it I'll take a look into the lexer code

[soft tusk]

alright

[unreal belfry]

I think I have 2 approaches, make an export statement
Or
Read the file find variable/function decelerations and add them to a map and then use them

[soft tusk]

i didnt really understood....

[soft tusk]

by export statement, what do you mean? where should the export statement be?

[grave spindle]

u created a programming lang in 5 days 🤨?

[sour gorge]

It's possible to get a Turing Complete language in 5 days if you're familiar with all of the steps.

[unreal belfry]

ok in import statement u need to execute that files code then take all refrences and then add them to a map and allow to use it in the file with import statement

[soft tusk]

In 3 days, I was following the book, so it was pretty easy

[soft tusk]

Hmm ok..... I understand now

[grave spindle]

ok so u r just pasting

[soft tusk]

kinda

[unreal belfry]

its still possible to create a simple programming language in few days

[grave spindle]

@soft tusk cheeck out the super-tiny-compiler written in Go: https://github.com/hazbo/the-super-tiny-compiler, it is written only in ~250 LOC (excluding comments), so should be super easy to get started with

[soft tusk]

i dont want a compiler and I am happy with the interpreter I have made

[grave spindle]

Compilers and interpreters do share the a lot of components in the beginning stage like tokenizer, parser, etc

Since the codebase is extremely small, you should be able to swap and modify the parts you don't need

[teal fern]

This might also be a good starting point:
https://github.com/alecthomas/participle/blob/master/_examples/expr/main.go

[soft tusk]

thanks a lot bro, it now works 😄

[soft tusk]

hey buddy, how is going, I need another help.... so I am trying to add elif statements to my lang... I am not able to think of how I can do....

[unreal belfry]

When I made if/else/else if statements when I check for else and next token is if then I skip 1 turn and then read it as an if statement