Making a compiler (ep 1)


This is a follow-up on my rant sH*£!#tty DaHMN bad LANG

Ever been so tired of the syntax of a programming language that you just couldn’t stand it? But in the meantime being forced to use it because of your workplace? So you develop a new language to compensate so you don’t have to handle the absolute shitstorm headaches from using the language?

I know I am. (Because I have a lot of free time at the moment)

Welcome to the devlog of Robot++. A compiler written in C# that translates the syntax of my made up language Robot++ into executable G1ANT.Robot code.

On todays report of my mission in “trying to embarrass the G1ANT developers by making a compiler as a statement of how bad they are at making a language” is some progress pics!

Let’s start glancing at figure A, an exemplary code snippet written in the language of G1ANT.Robot that we can shittalk to get you back in the mood.

"y/n" user dialog loop, written in G1ANT

If you ever taught yourself to be competent in the programming field (compared to the fartfaces who made shat out this language) then you should with some grasp be able to understand the code here.

What you’re confronted with is a regular while-loop. Try read it and understand the flow. Now if you’re tired of your life and don’t want a death trigger, or just want to read along to get my point in the following paragraph, then here’s a C# snippet that’s translated as good as I was able to do at this hour (sleep deprivation, my favorite).

"y/n" user dialog loop, written in C#

Now isn’t that much nicer. Quickly understandable code! Of course I made up the dialog.ask as a function but this is the kind of syntax I want to work with!!


So with some deadtime on the job spent on programming a tool I will probably only use for a couple of weeks, I have so far in two weeks made it parse if-statements! Woop.

Actually the thing is pretty complex, so I enjoy this futile result as it’s a great building block for the features to come. Here’s a stupid list of the current things list for the thing:

  • Tokenizer / Lexer built with RegExpressions
  • TDD for the core thing build with RegExamples
  • Parser for parsing, build with the Vegan Spaghetti Idiom™
  • Compiler thingiemcgig, it turns it back into string yo.
  • A pretty spades slick CLI for users (i.e. me, lol)
  • Syntax highlighting in the CLI, small nice feat
  • Made with .NET Core, C#. Same as the G1ANT.Robot. Which is funny.

Check this radaflapjack screenshot of the CLI (it’s pretty cool):

Compiling from C# to G1ANT on the command line

The syntax I’m rolling for the compiler is some weird mix between Lua & C#. Best of both worlds right? Anyhow it compiles back to .robot anyway, the syntax I can change if I ever want it. Here’s an example of “Robot++” written by yours truly (right), and the G1ANT.Robot code produced by the compiler (left):

Transpiling example, to G1ANT, from "Robot++"

Hope you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. I’m having a fucking blast writing this compiler, it’s untraveled ground for mr jag, and I’m setting a nice pavement.

See none of y’all next update where I unravel more features. Hopefully some fucking function calls or something (Oh right, fuck, time for some serious thonking for how to solve return values… UUUH) Anyways, I’m late to my lack of sleep, BYE.

Cheerio, trucknuts

This post was originally posted (by me) here: https://itsa-me-jag.tumblr.com/post/172116958447/making-of-a-compiler