notes.org

4 Steps for Adding Language Features

1. Syntax
   • Parser modifications
2. Representation
   • Objects and data to represent feature
3. Parsing
   • Modify reader/printer
   • AST -> read feature
4. Semantics
   • Evaluation and manipulation

Common Pitfalls

• When writing a builtin operation remember to operate on the ARGUMENTS of the lval that’s passed in. This usually involves popping them off the lval first.
• Remember to delete the container lval that runs the builtin function before returning the newly created lval that’s inside to replace it.

TODOs

• What is the logic behind who destroys variables and frees their memory? Still don’t fully grasp this.
• Possibly make a version of this in Rust/Go to learn those langs!
• possibly expand standard lib to include stuff from other lisps
• how could we make an object model in here?
• implement same Lang in a different lisp