README.md

PyLox

^{Image from Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom}

This is a language implementation of the Lox programming language, written in Python. It includes:

• A lexer (aka. scanner)
• An AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) parser
• A tree-walk interpreter

The implementation is based on the book Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom and was crafted with the help of the unit tests from the "Build your own Interpreter" challenge by CodeCrafters.

Grammar

Program Structure

program        → declaration* EOF ;

Declarations and Statements

declaration    → funDecl
               | varDecl
               | statement ;

funDecl        → "fun" function ;
function       → IDENTIFIER "(" parameters? ")" block ;
parameters     → IDENTIFIER ( "," IDENTIFIER )* ;

varDecl        → "var" IDENTIFIER ( "=" expression )? ";" ;

statement      → exprStmt
               | forStmt
               | ifStmt
               | printStmt
               | returnStmt
               | whileStmt
               | block ;

block          → "{" declaration* "}" ;
exprStmt       → expression ";" ;
forStmt        → "for" "(" ( varDecl | exprStmt | ";" )
                 expression? ";"
                 expression? ")" statement ;
ifStmt         → "if" "(" expression ")" statement
                 ( "else" statement )? ;
printStmt      → "print" expression ";" ;
returnStmt     → "return" expression? ";" ;
whileStmt      → "while" "(" expression ")" statement ;

Expressions

expression     → assignment ;
assignment     → IDENTIFIER "=" assignment
               | logic_or ;
logic_or       → logic_and ( "or" logic_and )* ;
logic_and      → equality ( "and" equality )* ;
equality       → comparison ( ( "!=" | "==" ) comparison )* ;
comparison     → term ( ( ">" | ">=" | "<" | "<=" ) term )* ;
term           → factor ( ( "-" | "+" ) factor )* ;
factor         → unary ( ( "/" | "*" ) unary )* ;
unary          → ( "!" | "-" ) unary | call ;
call           → primary ( "(" arguments? ")" )* ;
primary        → NUMBER | STRING | "true" | "false" | "nil" | "(" expression ")" | IDENTIFIER ;

arguments      → expression ( "," expression )* ;

Usage

Write your code in e.g. test.lox and run it with:

./lox.sh run test.lox