Learning to build languages

Learning how to build languages

Probably you are trying to learn building languages.

I went down that road a number of years ago.

Chances are that you, like me, having been frustrated by:

• Tutorials that are too theoretical: where is the code?
• Outdated resources: I am happy this used to work on a compiler of 20 years ago but it does not compile on my machine
• No big picture: you find some tutorials on parsers and some about compilers, but where are the resources giving you the whole map?

What resources you will find here

So I thought I could help by creating these resources:

• a book: everything is ready for you to learn following a well-organized plan, so that you can focus on the real stuff: building great languages
• a checklist of the 5 most important things to get right when building a language
• a course: if you do not want to buy the book you can follow a series of posts which should help you getting started
• dozens of posts discussing all sorts of topics related to building languages

Whichever path you pick, these resources should help you get started. If you feel something is missing, or you do not know where to start from, feel free to write to [email protected]. I will do my best to help you.

Book: How to create pragmatic, lightweight languages

This book explains how to build languages. The goal here is to end up with something that will be of use in practice. A real language, with an efficient parser and a complete compiler. A language with its own editor. This is not about building toys.

The approach described is based on reusing open-source components, and to organize and combine them to get something real with a limited amount of effort. Do you think it is not possible to build a parser, an interpreter, an editor and a simulator in less than 1.000 lines of code? Think again.

When I was learning how to build languages I was disappointed: I just found some basic tutorials here and there but what was missing was a complete course, organized to lead me from the very beginning to the end. Also, all approaches seemed so theoretical: a lot of words and not enough code.

Show me the book

Checklist: 5 things to get right when building a language

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Free course

You can find a course on building languages published as a series of posts

1. Building a lexer
2. Building a parser
3. Creating an editor with syntax highlighting
4. Build an editor with autocompletion
5. Mapping the parse tree to the abstract syntax tree
6. Model to model transformations
7. Validation
8. Generating bytecode

More posts

• 
  Interview with Cédric Brun on modeling areaNovember 18, 2020
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  Interview with Meinte Boersma on Domain-Specific LanguagesNovember 4, 2020
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  Integrating Code Completion in Visual Studio Code – With the Language Server ProtocolOctober 28, 2020
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  Interview with Scott McKinney on improving static typingOctober 7, 2020
• 
  Code Completion with ANTLR4-c3September 2, 2020
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  How to write a transpilerJune 10, 2020
• 
  Getting started with ANTLR: building a simple expression languageJune 9, 2020
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  Quick Domain-Specific Languages in Python with textXApril 8, 2020
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  JaRIKo, an RPG Interpreter in KotlinMarch 11, 2020
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  The Great New ANTLR 4.8January 23, 2020
• 
  A complete tutorial on the Drools business rule engineApril 15, 2019
• 
  Create a Transpiler: From VBA to VB.NETFebruary 15, 2019
• 
  Blazor: .NET in the BrowserSeptember 4, 2018
• 
  Getting started with ANTLR in C#January 16, 2018
• 
  Understand WebAssembly: Why It Will Change the WebDecember 19, 2017
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  The Fun (and Madness) of Esoteric Programming LanguagesJune 27, 2017
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  Parsing in Java: Tools and LibrariesMay 31, 2017
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  The Difference Between a Compiler and an InterpreterMay 10, 2017
• 
  68 Resources To Help You To Create Programming LanguagesApril 19, 2017
• 
  Language Server Protocol: A Language Server For DOT With Visual Studio CodeApril 5, 2017
• 
  The ANTLR Mega TutorialMarch 8, 2017
• 
  Why You Should Know the Language Server ProtocolFebruary 16, 2017
• 
  Interview with Thorsten Ball, author of “Writing an Interpreter in Go”February 7, 2017
• 
  Best posts on Language EngineeringJanuary 17, 2017
• 
  Create a simple parser in C# with SpracheJanuary 12, 2017
• 
  The Important Changes in the New ANTLR 4.6January 5, 2017
• 
  Kanvas: Generating a Simple IDE From Your ANTLR GrammarJanuary 3, 2017
• 
  Interesting things happening in Language EngineeringDecember 27, 2016
• 
  Writing a very simple JS editorNovember 29, 2016
• 
  Getting started with Roslyn: transforming C# codeOctober 18, 2016
• 
  Generating bytecodeSeptember 13, 2016
• 
  Building a compiler for your own language: validationSeptember 6, 2016
• 
  Building a compiler for your own language: model-to-model transformationsAugust 30, 2016
• 
  Building a compiler for your own language: from the parse tree to the Abstract Syntax TreeAugust 23, 2016
• 
  Building autocompletion for an editor based on ANTLRAugust 16, 2016
• 
  How to create an editor with syntax highlighting for your language using ANTLR and KotlinAugust 9, 2016
• 
  A book on creating languages and supporting toolsFebruary 28, 2016
• 
  Polyglot Software Development: My PhD ThesisMarch 21, 2014
• 
  Megamodels, projectional editors and Inference in programmingJuly 24, 2013