[Gambas-user] Basic steps

[Rob Kudla]

On Sun December 11 2005 22:27, Ramon Orticio wrote:
> but it tickles my imagination to learn more. in your
> expert opinion what are the basics steps in creating a
> programming language like gambas. that means creating
> a programming language  from scratch.

For the technical details on how Benoit went about creating the 
Gambas compiler and interpreter and from thence the IDE, you 
should probably ask on the gambas-devel list.  

In general, though, I'd think you would first decide what kind of 
architecture you're interested in (pure interpreter, P-code 
interpreter, virtual machine, native code compiler, etc.) and 
then design your language's syntax/grammar and the means for 
extending your language, and then implement the compiler and/or 
interpreter, most often in C or C++.

I would like to suggest, though, as gently as possible, that if 
you have trouble understanding concepts like mount points and 
the complexities of interfacing with different API's (such as 
that of Openoffice), it may not yet be time to start writing 
your own language.  You may want to buy a book on computer 
languages, like Friedman's "Essentials of Programming 
Languages", and if you don't find it to be way over your head, 
maybe try to implement one of the conceptually simpler languages 
like Forth or Lisp before trying to tackle a higher-level 
language like BASIC.

Rob