[HN Gopher] How do you prototype a nice language?
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       How do you prototype a nice language?
        
       Author : surprisetalk
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2025-06-06 01:10 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (kevinlynagh.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (kevinlynagh.com)
        
       | norir wrote:
       | Here is the most valuable exercise I can think of for language
       | development: write a function that produces a formatted error
       | string that renders the location of the cause of the error and
       | the reason for the error. Once you have this, it will be much
       | easier to write your compiler from the ground up because every
       | step of the way you can validate that the compiler is only
       | handling inputs that you it expect it to and rejecting everything
       | else.
       | 
       | The error reporting function is not easy to write correctly, but
       | a decent one can be written in fewer than 100 lines of lua (and I
       | am certain it can be done in all but the least expressive
       | languages in under 200).
        
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