Re: object oriented compiler/interpreter - HOWTO

    "Brett" <bretr_a@--nospam--one.net.au> wrote:
> Can Anyone Point Me In Right Direction For Writing My Own OO
> Compiler/Interpreter?


Hi Brett,


I can't point you to literature ... don't have any available myself,
but I'm currently involved in the OO-Language compiler/interpreter
topic as well ... after two experimental implementations of Lisp-like
functional languages I'm now about to go for a small OO-language.


Maybe you should at first clearify, what exactly you want: it's
possible to implement most of the OO-properties of your language
compile-side, as C++ does - in this case you'll have to do a lot of
work in the compiler, or implement OO in a runtime system, as
SmallTalk does, and Java as well. The latter imho leads to more
consistent OO-approaches, and my research until now led me to the
conclusion that it's possible to implement very small, tiny & elegant
VMs just using a minimalistic instruction set providing attribute
access, method invocation, resolution of class hierarchies by some
kind of 'superclass' operation, local variable access, some
conditional and unconditional branch operations and not much more,
leaving most of the work to be done to a supportive class library.


Anyway, a more precise idea of what exactly you want will probably
help you to find appropriate information.


Btw., I enjoy the challenge to reinvent the wheel here, and do my
research without reading too much about ideas others had. I'll
complete my design and prototype implementation instead and will then
compare this solution to other ones.


I know, this is not a 'professional' approach, but at least when
working on self-choosen non-customer projects, I like to go for
maximal fun instead of maximal working efficiency; this also led to
best learning success for me, because I really *think* about it, not
only try to understand what others thought ... So I'm couraged enough
to recommend my approach to you - believe me, it's fun, and it's much
more satisfying ;)


Best Regards & Success,


- greldinard

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