Building a Parser from scratch

🌟 Building a Parser from Scratch: Mastering Recursive Descent Parsers for Programming Languages 🌟

Course Headline

Recursive descent parser for a programming language - A practical guide to designing and implementing your own manual parser.

Overview

Parsing or syntactic analysis is a fundamental aspect of compiler design, where the syntax of a programming language plays a crucial role in determining its usability and preference among developers. This course delves into the practical realm of constructing a Recursive-descent parser, which is a popular and effective parsing technique used in real-world applications, including many production-level programming languages.

Key Features of the Course:

• Practical Focus: This course emphasizes hands-on learning with real-world applications, allowing you to build a parser from scratch.

• Flexible Implementation: Although we use JavaScript for our implementation due to its versatile programming paradigms, the skills you learn are readily transferable to any other programming language of your choice.

• Full Source Code: You'll have access to the full source code from the beginning, which is demonstrated in video lectures, ensuring that you can follow along and understand every detail.

Course Structure:

Part 1: Basic Expressions and Tokenizer

• Understanding basic expressions like Numbers and Strings.
• Building a robust Tokenizer using regular expressions.

Part 2: Program Structure

• Exploring program structures such as statements, statement lists, blocks, and recursive production rules.
• Discussing different AST formats and constructing more complex expressions.

Part 3: Control Flow and Functions

• Implementing variables, assignment operations, and operator precedence.
• Introducing function abstraction and defining control structures like If-statements and loops.

Part 4: Object-oriented Programming

• Implementing classes, objects, property access, array access, generic functions, and method calls.
• Finalizing the parser executable with a comprehensive understanding of recursive descent parsers.

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for:

• Curious Engineers: Individuals interested in mastering the art of building complex systems, particularly those who aspire to delve into compilers, interpreters, and source code transformation tools.

• Programming Enthusiasts: Those who have a foundational understanding of data structures and algorithms such as trees, lists, and regular expressions.

Course Format:

• Concise Lectures: Each session is focused and to the point, providing information that is directly relevant to the topic at hand.

• Animated Presentations: Engaging video content with live editing notes for clearer understanding of complex concepts.

• Live Coding Sessions: End-to-end coding from scratch demonstrated in lectures, complete with assignments.

What's Included in the Course?

• 18 Lectures across four parts covering all aspects of building a recursive descent parser.

• Sub-topics: Numerous sub-topics within each main lecture to ensure comprehensive coverage of the subject matter.

• Table of Contents and Curriculum: A detailed outline of what each part of the course entails, ensuring that you know what to expect and how to plan your learning journey.

Join us on this enlightening journey into the world of parsing and take a step towards becoming an expert in compiler design! 🚀✨