Re:C-style vs. Python-style syntax: which one would you pref...
by mojuba on Sunday December 14, 2008 @04:49PM
(#397683)
Thanks for your suggestions. Yes, I checked Lua of course, it's neat, but as I said elsewhere, the if ... end syntax is not considered because I find it slightly less appealing than C and Python.
As for interpreter vs. compiler, I thought about this. One approach is to build a simple VM-based system with the entire language infrastructure in place (fundamental types, minimal standard library), which is not much harder than to write an interpreter with the same infrastructure. Then start fine-tuning the VM itself and possibly thinking about the JIC. The original compiler code, which is not the biggest part of your system, is left almost intact in this case.
As opposed to the "interpreter - first" approach, where you will be throwing away some significant portions of your code once you start writing the real compiler. I thought it would be a waste of time. Interpreters and compilers are too different in almost every respect.
As for interpreter vs. compiler, I thought about this. One approach is to build a simple VM-based system with the entire language infrastructure in place (fundamental types, minimal standard library), which is not much harder than to write an interpreter with the same infrastructure. Then start fine-tuning the VM itself and possibly thinking about the JIC. The original compiler code, which is not the biggest part of your system, is left almost intact in this case.
As opposed to the "interpreter - first" approach, where you will be throwing away some significant portions of your code once you start writing the real compiler. I thought it would be a waste of time. Interpreters and compilers are too different in almost every respect.