Re: Implementation Language Choice

Kevin Albrecht wrote:


> What languages have others found useful as implementation
> languages?


Functional languages have been reported to be exceedingly strong in this
area. You essentially define a few helper functions, then the parser is
a simple transliteration of the grammar rules. (The keywords to google
for are "parsing combinators".)
In particular, it seems to be easy to attach different things to the
parsers (for "things" say prettyprinters, code transformers, compilers,
and whatnot).


The downside is that the approach will produce only recursive-descent
grammars. Good enough if you're free to define the syntax, often
unworkable if the syntax is a given.


> The following features are important to me in a choice for a better
> implementation language:
>
> * mature compiler(s) that produces native-code binaries
> * open source - preferable, but not 100% necessary


Most FPLs will qualify (nowadays).


Regards,
Jo
--
Currently looking for a new job.

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