Category Archives: Code

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Writing a Programming Language 101

Writing your own programming language is incredibly daunting. But if you start by writing a language that evaluates very simple functions it opens your mind to the possibility of writing an entire language and gives you a better understanding of what that would entail. So let’s start there. Let’s write a programming language that adds and multiplies numbers.

What’s in a Programming Language?

1. Parsers: Functions that read input and then tell the program what to do with it
2. Data Structure: The parser puts our input into an abstract syntax which our program can then evaluate
3. Nodes: Each node on the tree represents a value or expression which can then be evaluated to give us a value
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Polymorphism in Ruby

Polymorphism comes form the greek words ‘polys’ meaning much or many and ‘morphe’ meaning form or shape. In programming, it refers to the ability to use functions or methods in different ways for different objects or data types.

Having the ability to use the same method in a different way depending on data input is very useful in Ruby. It greatly decreases the need for long, ugly if statements like this: Continue reading →