Build a Tiny Interpreter
The lesson builds the front end of a tiny arithmetic language. First it scans characters into tokens, then parses precedence into a tree, reports a useful syntax error, and evaluates the expression. A second pass shows how the same tree could be lowered to bytecode and run by a small virtual machine.
The goal is to make each representation inspectable rather than to claim that production languages all use this exact pipeline. Viewers finish by extending the grammar with unary minus and writing boundary tests for malformed input. Companion material: language pipeline article, compiler trace, and Crafting Interpreters.
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From Characters to Executable Behavior
Follow a small program through lexing, parsing, semantic checks, intermediate forms, code generation, and runtime execution.
How a Parser Turns Tokens Into Structure
A lexer groups characters into tokens such as identifiers, numbers, and punctuation.
A Bytecode VM Executes a Portable Instruction Set
Bytecode is a compact instruction representation designed for a virtual machine rather than one physical processor.
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