Let's build a simple interpreter for APL – part 1
6 days ago
- #Python programming
- #tokenization
- #APL interpreter
- The author is building an APL interpreter in Python, inspired by Ruslan Spivak's series on building a Pascal interpreter.
- The interpreter tokenizes APL code from right to left to match APL's execution order, handling numbers, operators, and special glyphs like negation (¯).
- An Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) is constructed using a defined grammar to represent APL statements, with node types for scalars, arrays, monadic/dyadic functions, and operators.
- The parser uses methods like eat and peek to process tokens according to the grammar, enabling interpretation of simple APL expressions.
- Future work includes extending the interpreter to handle more functions and operators, with the goal of a fully functional APL interpreter.