Clinton L. Jeffery

Learn to design your own programming language in a hands-on way by building compilers, using preprocessors, transpilers, and more, in this fully-refreshed second edition, written by the creator of the Unicon programming language. Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Key Features Takes a hands-on approach; learn by building the Jzero language, a subset of Java, with example code shown in both the Java and Unicon languages Learn how to create parsers, code generators, scanners, and interpreters Target bytecode, native code, and preprocess or transpile code into a high-level language Book DescriptionThere are many reasons to build a programming language: out of necessity, as a learning exercise, or just for fun. Whatever your reasons, this book gives you the tools to succeed. You’ll build the frontend of a compiler for your language and generate a lexical analyzer and parser using Lex and YACC tools. Then you’ll explore a series of syntax tree traversals before looking at code generation for a bytecode virtual machine or native code. In this edition, a new chapter has been added to assist you in comprehending the nuances and distinctions between preprocessors and transpilers. Code examples have been modernized, expanded, and rigorously tested, and all content has undergone thorough refreshing. You’ll learn to implement code generation techniques using practical examples, including the Unicon Preprocessor and transpiling Jzero code to Unicon. You'll move to domain-specific language features and learn to create them as built-in operators and functions. You’ll also cover garbage collection. Dr. Jeffery’s experiences building the Unicon language are used to add context to the concepts, and relevant examples are provided in both Unicon and Java so that you can follow along in your language of choice. By the end of this book, you'll be able to build and deploy your own domain-specific language. What you will learn Analyze requirements for your language and design syntax and semantics. Write grammar rules for common expressions and control structures. Build a scanner to read source code and generate a parser to check syntax. Implement syntax-coloring for your code in IDEs like VS Code. Write tree traversals and insert information into the syntax tree. Implement a bytecode interpreter and run bytecode from your compiler. Write native code and run it after assembling and linking using system tools. Preprocess and transpile code into another high-level language Who this book is forThis book is for software developers interested in the idea of inventing their own language or developing a domain-specific language. Computer science students taking compiler design or construction courses will also find this book highly useful as a practical guide to language implementation to supplement more theoretical textbooks. Intermediate or better proficiency in Java or C++ programming languages (or another high-level programming language) is assumed.

Written by the creator of the Unicon programming language, this book will show you how to implement programming languages to reduce the time and cost of creating applications for new or specialized areas of computingKey FeaturesReduce development time and solve pain points in your application domain by building a custom programming languageLearn how to create parsers, code generators, file readers, analyzers, and interpretersCreate an alternative to frameworks and libraries to solve domain-specific problemsBook DescriptionThe need for different types of computer languages is growing rapidly and developers prefer creating domain-specific languages for solving specific application domain problems. Building your own programming language has its advantages. It can be your antidote to the ever-increasing size and complexity of software. In this book, you'll start with implementing the frontend of a compiler for your language, including a lexical analyzer and parser. The book covers a series of traversals of syntax trees, culminating with code generation for a bytecode virtual machine. Moving ahead, you'll learn how domain-specific language features are often best represented by operators and functions that are built into the language, rather than library functions. We'll conclude with how to implement garbage collection, including reference counting and mark-and-sweep garbage collection. Throughout the book, Dr. Jeffery weaves in his experience of building the Unicon programming language to give better context to the concepts where relevant examples are provided in both Unicon and Java so that you can follow the code of your choice of either a very high-level language with advanced features, or a mainstream language. By the end of this book, you'll be able to build and deploy your own domain-specific languages, capable of compiling and running programs. What you will learnPerform requirements analysis for the new language and design language syntax and semanticsWrite lexical and context-free grammar rules for common expressions and control structuresDevelop a scanner that reads source code and generate a parser that checks syntaxBuild key data structures in a compiler and use your compiler to build a syntax-coloring code editorImplement a bytecode interpreter and run bytecode generated by your compilerWrite tree traversals that insert information into the syntax treeImplement garbage collection in your languageWho this book is forThis book is for software developers interested in the idea of inventing their own language or developing a domain-specific language. Computer science students taking compiler construction courses will also find this book highly useful as a practical guide to language implementation to supplement more theoretical textbooks. Intermediate-level knowledge and experience working with a high-level language such as Java or the C++ language are expected to help you get the most out of this book.

In computer science, the primary application of visualization technology is software visualization: the use of graphics to portray information obtained from a static or dynamic analysis of a program. Software visualization is used in several phases of the software development lifecycle, but it is of particular interest in the "back- end" tasks of debugging, performance tuning, and understanding complex systems in order to maintain them. Software visualization is expected to improve the back end of the software development process which can result in huge cost savings. Debugging, tuning and maintaining programs comprise the majority of the high costs associated with software development. Unfortunately, the rate at which these software technologies have improved has been gradual. The task of writing software visualization tools is difficult, and most existing systems are limited to a narrow scope, such as the visualization of a single well-understood algorithm from a hand-instrumented source program. This book presents software visualization at a level suitable for a senior level undergraduate or graduate course or for the interested technical professional. The approach is to give a survey of the field, and then present a specific research framework designed to reduce the effort required to write visualization tools. A wide range of simple program control flow and data structure visualizations are then presented as examples of how to obtain information about program behavior, and how to present it graphically. Source code fragments and screen images illustrate each example.