Develop an Interpreter using Rust Programming from Udemy

What's inside

Learning objectives

Developing an interpreter using rust programming
Understand lexing, parsing , evaluation steps of the parser

Create a repl for playing with the interpreter
Develop interpreter for a custom programming language

Developing an interpreter using rust programming
Understand lexing, parsing , evaluation steps of the parser
Create a repl for playing with the interpreter
Develop interpreter for a custom programming language

Syllabus

Introduction

Introduction to the course

We will understand what an Interpreter is, its difference to Compilers, types of interpreters and giving way to tree-walking interpreter

We will learn features of Monkey Programming Language, and get used to used to syntax with regards to variable declaration, creating arrays and Hash data structures, functions and getting a feel for higher order functions

We will install Rust and Visual Studio code and an extension for IDE

Introduction to Lexical Analysis

Generating Project using Cargo

Defining Tokens in Token package

Test for next token method of Lexer struct inside Lexer module

Implementation of helper read char method

Implementation of next token method

next token method review

Extending the next token test case to make more similar to monkey programming language syntax

Logic to lex keywords and identifiers

Implementation of Lexer step for integers

Extending the test case and Token set for new tokens

Extending the next token method to lex newly added single length characters

Extending Token set with monkey programming language keywords

Adding implementation logic to lex double character tokens

Adding a REPL

Introduction to parsing phase

Note on parser generators like ANTLR

Parsing Strategies Top down and bottom up

Overview of parsing let statements

AST structure for Let Statement

Parse Program method overview with pseudocode

Test case for parsing let statement

Let Statement Parser Implementation

Let Statement Code Walkthrough to understand the flow

Add errors field to parser

AST for return statement

Test case for parsing return statements

Parser implementation for Return Statement

Challenges in Parsing an Expression

AST for Expression Statement

Test case for print string method

Prefix and Infix functions setup

Test for parsing identifier expressions

Parser implementation for Identifier Expression

AST and test case for Integer Literal

Implementation of parsing integer literal

AST for Prefix Expression

Test case for Prefix Expression

Implementation of parsing prefix expression

AST and test case for Infix Expression

Implementation of parsing infix expression

Pratt Parse Precedence Working Walkthrough

Simplifying test with test helpers

AST and test case for boolean expression

Implementing parsing of boolean expression

Implementing parsing of grouped expressions

AST for If Expression

Test Case for If Expression

Implementation of Parsing for If Expression

AST for Function Literal

Test case for function literal

Implementation of parsing of function literal

AST for call expression

Test case for parsing call expression

Implementation of parsing of call expression

Implementing left out TODO's

Modifying REPL to parser logic

Introduction to Evaluation phase

Different Evaluation Strategies available

Info about Tree Walking Interpreter and Object System for the interpreter

Representation of Integer in Object System

Boolean and Null Object Representation for evaluation

Test case for evaluating integer literal

Implementation for evaluating integer literal

Updating REPL to play around with Integer Literal Object representation

Implementation for evaluating boolean

Evaluating Prefix Bang Operator Expression

Evaluating Prefix Minus Expression

Evaluating Infix Integer Expression

Evaluating Infix Boolean Expression

Test case for evaluating if else expression

Evaluation of If Else Expressions

Evaluation of Return Statements

Add error handling

Evaluation issue in managing values of let bindings

Environment to keep track of identifiers and its values

Evaluating identifiers

testing let binding in REPL

Object representation for Function

Test case to evaluate function literal

Implementation of evaluating function literal

Test case for evaluating call expression

Scope issue with evaluating call expression

Implementation of evaluating call expression

Call Expression implementation logic walkthrough

Testing call expression in REPL

Test case for closures

Introduction to extending interpreter with Data types and Builtin functions

Lexing of String Literal

parsing of string literal

Evaluation of string literal

Traffic lights

Read about what's good

what should give you pause

and possible dealbreakers

Provides a hands-on approach to understanding interpreters by building one for a custom language called Monkey, offering practical experience in language processing techniques

Uses Rust, a modern systems programming language known for its safety and performance, making it relevant for developers interested in building efficient interpreters

Explores advanced topics like closures, first-class functions, and error handling during the interpreter development process, enhancing understanding of complex programming concepts

Assumes familiarity with basic programming concepts, as it dives directly into building an interpreter without extensive introductory material on programming fundamentals

Teaches how to create a REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) for interacting with the interpreter, which is useful for testing and experimenting with the custom programming language

Inspired by 'Writing An Interpreter In Go,' suggesting that learners may benefit from familiarity with the concepts discussed in that book for a deeper understanding

Reviews summary

Build a rust interpreter project

According to learners, this course offers a highly practical and rewarding experience by guiding students through building a complete interpreter in Rust. Many find the project-based approach to be an excellent way to apply and deepen their Rust skills while gaining a solid understanding of language processing concepts like lexing, parsing, and evaluation. However, a notable number of students mention that the course has a fast pace and seems to assume significant prior knowledge of Rust and potentially compiler theory, making it potentially challenging for those who are true beginners to the language or the subject matter. Overall, it's seen as a great next step for those comfortable with Rust basics looking for a substantial project.

Explains lexing, parsing, and evaluation.

"The instructor explains complex concepts like lexing, parsing, and evaluation clearly."

"Covered lexing, parsing, and evaluation thoroughly."

"The explanation of the AST and evaluation process was particularly well done."

Build a real interpreter step-by-step.

"This course is fantastic for learning how interpreters work hands-on. Building the Monkey language interpreter step-by-step in Rust was incredibly insightful."

"A solid practical guide to building an interpreter. I appreciated the focus on Rust... The project is engaging, though."

"Brilliant course! Took me from knowing basic Rust to building a working interpreter. The project-based approach is the best way to learn."

"Absolutely loved this course! Building the interpreter was an amazing experience. It was challenging but extremely rewarding."

Some complex topics could use more detail.

"Some parts felt a bit rushed, especially the parsing section with Pratt parsing."

"It would be helpful to have more in-depth explanations or examples for some of the trickier concepts."

"I did find some of the error handling explanations a bit hard to grasp initially."

May be too fast-paced for beginners.

"The concept is great... However, I felt the course assumed too much prior knowledge, both of Rust and compiler theory."

"The pace was quite fast, and I often had to pause and do external research. It's probably better suited for someone with more experience..."

"Struggled a lot with this course. As someone relatively new to Rust, the code complexity ramped up very quickly."

"Felt like I was just copying code without fully understanding why. The instructor moves fast. Not for Rust beginners despite the description."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Develop an Interpreter using Rust Programming with these activities:

Practice Rust Fundamentals

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Reinforce your understanding of Rust syntax, data structures, and control flow.

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Review the Rust documentation on basic syntax.
Complete several Rust exercises on platforms like Exercism or Rustlings.
Write small Rust programs to practice using different data structures.

Read 'Crafting Interpreters'

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Gain a deeper understanding of interpreter design principles and implementation techniques.

View Crafting Interpreters on Amazon

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Obtain a copy of 'Crafting Interpreters'.
Read the chapters on lexical analysis and parsing.
Compare the Java examples with the Rust code in the course.
Implement some of the examples in Rust.

Read 'Programming Rust'

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Enhance your Rust programming skills to better understand the interpreter's codebase.

View Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development on Amazon

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Obtain a copy of 'Programming Rust'.
Focus on chapters related to ownership, borrowing, and lifetimes.
Experiment with the code examples in the book.
Apply the concepts to the interpreter project.

Four other activities

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Pair Programming on Parser Implementation

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Improve your parsing skills by collaborating with a peer on a parsing task.

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Find a classmate to pair program with.
Choose a parsing task, such as implementing a new expression type.
Work together to implement the parser, switching roles periodically.
Test the parser thoroughly.

Extend the Monkey Interpreter

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Solidify your understanding of the interpreter by adding new features to the Monkey language.

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Choose a feature to add, such as error handling or new data types.
Implement the necessary changes to the lexer, parser, and evaluator.
Write tests to ensure the new feature works correctly.
Document the new feature.

Write a Blog Post on Interpreter Design

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Deepen your understanding of interpreter design by explaining the concepts to others.

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Choose a specific aspect of interpreter design to focus on.
Research the topic and gather relevant information.
Write a clear and concise blog post explaining the concept.
Include code examples and diagrams to illustrate the concept.

Contribute to a Rust Project

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Gain practical experience with Rust by contributing to an open-source project.

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Find a Rust project on GitHub that interests you.
Identify a bug or feature request to work on.
Submit a pull request with your changes.
Respond to feedback from the project maintainers.

Career center

Learners who complete Develop an Interpreter using Rust Programming will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Programming Language Designer

A programming language designer creates new languages to solve specific problems. This course directly prepares you for this role by having you build your own interpreter using Rust. It challenges you to make decisions about language syntax, semantics, and implementation, such as designing a lexer and a parser, and it guides you through the evaluation of expressions. The course also introduces advanced topics like closures and first-class functions, which are elements of many modern programming languages. If you want to design and build your own programming language, this course will be useful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Programming Language Designer

Software Developer

A software developer creates and maintains software applications. This course, focused on developing an interpreter using Rust, offers a deep dive into the mechanics of programming languages. The hands-on approach of building a lexer, parser, and evaluator provides a solid foundation in how code is processed, a crucial understanding for any software developer. The experience of working with a custom programming language, Monkey, could significantly enhance one's ability to grasp how diverse programming languages might work, and this skill set is useful for a software developer. By the end of the course, you will have built your own programming language, which shows a mastery of software development.

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Language Tools Developer

A language tools developer creates utilities that help programmers work with programming languages. This course, with its focus on building an interpreter, is directly relevant to this role. The course covers essential aspects of language processing, such as lexical analysis, parsing, and evaluation. By building your own interpreter, you will gain an understanding of how these tools work internally, and this will be essential in creating new tools. The course may be helpful for those looking to develop debuggers, code editors, and other programs that assist programmers.

See salaries and explore the career path for Language Tools Developer

Research Scientist

A research scientist, especially in computer science, often works on novel programming language concepts or software systems. This course on building an interpreter may prove useful because it provides hands on experience in language implementation. The work in this course can be important for understanding how new programming language innovations can be used. The detailed study of language processing techniques, like lexical analysis, parsing, and evaluating expressions might be key to research on software systems and programming languages. To work as a research scientist often requires a PhD.

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Compiler Engineer

A compiler engineer works on the tools that translate human-readable code into machine-executable instructions. This course, while focused on an interpreter, covers critical principles shared by both interpreters and compilers, such as lexical analysis and parsing. You'll gain expertise in the fundamental aspects of language processing, which are directly applicable to compiler design. The course specifically explores concepts like recursive descent parsing, which are also relevant to compiler engineering. This course may help you understand how programs are transformed, and this knowledge will be relevant for anyone wanting to develop compilers.

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Software Architect

A software architect designs the high-level structure of software systems, which includes a broad understanding of programming languages and how they're implemented. This course directly relates to understanding the inner workings of an interpreter, and it will help you see how language design affects how programs run. The experience of building a lexer, parser, and evaluator may help improve your understanding of how software should be structured and how different components work together. This course may be useful for anyone wanting to understand the architecture of software systems.

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Programming Language Evangelist

A programming language evangelist promotes and educates others about a particular programming language. This course directly involves designing and implementing a new programming language, which could deepen your understanding of the language's features and capabilities. You'll be able to articulate complex concepts by having built your own lexer, parser, and evaluator, giving you the skills to present this knowledge to a wide audience. The experience gained through this course will equip you to discuss programming languages with an authoritative voice.

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Systems Software Engineer

A systems software engineer works on low-level software such as operating systems and device drivers where understanding how programming languages are processed is very useful. This course will give you hands-on experience with core concepts like lexical analysis, parsing, and evaluation. The practical aspects of the course with Rust will provide a deeper understanding of how computer systems handle and execute code, and this knowledge would be important in the role of a systems software engineer. The course may be helpful for those wishing to understand how software interacts with hardware.

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Embedded Systems Engineer

An embedded systems engineer develops software for devices, which often involves working directly with hardware. The course's exploration of how code is interpreted, particularly in the context of the custom language Monkey, provides valuable insights into low-level programming details. The hands-on experience of building an interpreter, including implementing a lexer and parser, may be directly useful in understanding how code interacts with hardware. This course may give you a better understanding of how code is processed, which is useful in embedded systems.

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Algorithm Developer

An algorithm developer designs and implements algorithms, often needing to understand how these algorithms are executed within computing environments. Although this course focuses on the architecture of interpreters, it provides a practical, hands-on understanding of parsing and evaluation of code, which are processes that algorithms must go through to function. The work you do in creating a lexer and a recursive descent parser may improve your appreciation for how algorithms are translated into functional code. This may prove helpful for a person designing algorithms.

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Artificial Intelligence Engineer

An artificial intelligence engineer develops and implements AI solutions, which may require a deep understanding of programming language principles. While this course is not directly focused on AI, the course provides a foundational understanding of how programming languages are parsed and evaluated. The hands-on experience of building a lexer, parser, and evaluator may give an AI engineer insight into how AI code runs and how AI frameworks are designed. This course may improve your ability to use AI tools and frameworks more effectively.

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Technical Lead

A technical lead guides development teams and needs a deep understanding of software systems. This course, with its focus on the inner workings of programming language interpreters, can give a technical lead with broader knowledge of how different software solutions work. The hands-on practice of creating a lexer, a parser, and an evaluator may be useful in mentoring team members and troubleshooting complex issues that may arise in the use of their language. The course specifically mentions understanding closures and first-class functions, which may be useful when designing software architecture.

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DevOps Engineer

A DevOps engineer focuses on automating and optimizing the software development lifecycle, which may include working with tools that analyze or process code. While this course centers on interpreter development, it introduces concepts that are useful in understanding how software is built and run. The process of building a lexer and parser may help a DevOps engineer to better understand software pipelines and how they are built. The practical experience gained through this course can help you understand how to manage the development of other complex software.

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Data Scientist

A data scientist analyzes data and builds models using programming, often needing a strong ability to work with code. While this course does not directly involve data analysis, it covers important ideas about how programming languages themselves work. The experience of creating a lexer, parser, and evaluator may give you a better appreciation of how code is processed and optimized, which can be useful when creating tools for data analysis. This course may help a data scientist improve their ability to utilize data processing tools.

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Full-Stack Developer

A full stack developer works on both the front-end and back-end of web applications. While this course does not directly relate to front-end web development, it introduces fundamental concepts about how code is processed and executed, which are useful for back-end development. The experience in building an interpreter and parsing source code may provide a deeper appreciation for back-end language implementation and how databases are queried. This course may improve a full stack developer's ability to understand back-end infrastructure.

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Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Develop an Interpreter using Rust Programming.

Crafting Interpreters

Save

Provides a comprehensive guide to building interpreters from scratch. It covers lexical analysis, parsing, and evaluation in detail, using Java as the primary language. While this course uses Rust, the underlying concepts are directly applicable and the book offers valuable insights into interpreter design and implementation. It highly regarded resource and often used as a textbook in compiler design courses.

Crafting Interpreters

Paperback

Crafting Interpreters

Kindle Edition

Programming Rust

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Provides a comprehensive guide to the Rust programming language. It covers advanced topics such as ownership, borrowing, and concurrency. While the course focuses on interpreter design, a strong understanding of Rust is essential for success. This book can serve as a valuable reference for understanding the more complex aspects of Rust used in the interpreter implementation. It is commonly used by industry professionals.

Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development

Kindle Edition

Develop an Interpreter using Rust Programming

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What's inside

Learning objectives

Syllabus

Traffic lights

Save this course

Reviews summary

Build a rust interpreter project

Activities

Career center

Reading list

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