Re: Need Information on how to create bytecode

I have a question, not necessarily for you, but for the knowledgeable
residents of comp.compilers: is p-code/bytecode the best solution? I
wrote a little scripting language once and felt sort of resigned to
generating bytecode just as you are doing, and while it ended up
working, debugging the scripts was a nightmare!


In contrast, a co-worker was recently showing me a scripting language
he'd developed which generated a parse-tree, with classes representing
the various node-types all descended from a single basic node. The
interpreter executed over the tree rather than P-code, and I found it
more straightforward to step through. I also found it fairly
flexible, allowing the development of continuations and other nifty
stuff, and it could be stored and read from an XML file.


I wonder why I don't see such a solution more often, except for the
fact that whenever we open up a book on compilers, they all assume
you're generating p-code/assembly.
[There isn't really that much practical difference between bytecodes
and a parse tree. A typical RPN byte code is easily generated by doing
a depth first walk of a parse tree, and you can rebuild the tree just
as easily as you read in the codes. -John]

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