Addendum: Profiling a new programming language

[Mike Schwartz]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 4:49 PM, Ryan Rix <phrkonaleash at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed November 12 2008 04:47:59 pm [the same guy] (also) wrote:
> > Hello list,
> >
> > To stave off my boredom I've decided to take up creating a programming
> > language specifically for creating long repetitive text documents (like
> > repetitive resource definitions) where simple ctrl-c ctrl-v won't work,
> > like incrementing ID's, filenames within definitions, etc.
> >
> > Basically, I have created, what I believe will be the sample script input
> > file (which I have attached) so that I have a goal to aim for.
> >
> > What would be the best way to start by developing this tool? I have never
> > done any programming real down to the core, nothing with a lot of text
> > parsing before... How would I best attack creating an interpreter?
> > I plan on making it in C so that it is fairly portable sourcewise, unless I
> > am presented a better option of course :)
> >
> > Thank you for your time,
> > Ryan
> > Ryan Rix
> > [...]
>
> I have attached the target pilrc source file I would want outputted from the
> sample script (I won't attach all the bmp's used to create it though! :D
>
>  ~Ryan
> --
> Thanks and best regards,
> Ryan Rix
> [...]
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - [...]

I may know way *less* about this, than some of the other folks
on this list, but (without even having looked at your attachments)
it sounds like it may be a good job for Python, or maybe Perl.
In the "unlikely" event that there is something that those 2 P's
both can't do, then perhaps Lex and/or YACC could do
that which needs to be done.
     I do not know the details.
It just seems to me that, if you wrote it in C, then
   (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun's_Tenth_Rule)
you might be re-inventing a wheel or two...
    If you "do not already know" (say) Python or Perl, and you
think for one minute that learning such a language might be
harder than re-inventing a wheel or 2, then by all means use
your judgment, (if you want to);
YMMV, and I could be wrong;  ((but I would be surprised)).
Just my opinion [/guess] ...
--
Mike Schwartz
Glendale  AZ
schwartz at acm.org