A crash course in compilers (2018)
This article’s introduction includes:<p>> Diving deeper into program language theory is a great way to grow as a developer.<p>But does anything in this article really count as programming language theory? I’ve always considered PLT to mean things like type theory and formal semantics, which are quite separate from the practical implementation of compilers.<p>I’ve been put off designing a programming language, even a dynamically-typed scripting language, because I’m just not that interested in PLT. I’m much more interested in the subject of this article (the implementation of compilers and interpreters) than in the math behind type systems.<p>Do you think it’s possible to design a successful language without knowledge of PLT? Or should I stick to working on compilers for existing languages?