How to approach creating a JVM programming language?

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I have created a compiler in C (using Lex & Bison) for a dynamic typed programming language that supports loops, functions declarations inside functions, recursive calls, etc. I also created a virtual machine that runs the intermediate code created by the compiler.

I was thinking about compiling it to Java bytecode instead of my own intermediate code.

I saw that the question about creating a JVM language has already been asked, but I don’t find the answer very informative.

So here are my questions:

  1. I guess to create a language for JVM a must is to read the JVM specification book, what other books can you suggest (except Dragon Book of course)? I’m mostly concerned about books or tutorials on how to create a JVM language, not a compiler in general.
  2. There are many Java libraries to read, write and change .class files like jclasslib, bcel, gnu bytecode, etc. Which one would you suggest? Also, are you aware of C libraries that do the same job?
  3. I was thinking about having a look at maybe another language that targets the JVM like Clojure, Jython or JRuby. But all these languages are very high level and complicated (to create a compiler for them). I was looking for a simpler (I don't mind if it's unknown or unused) programming language that targets the JVM and with an open-source compiler. Any ideas?
jvm-languages jvm programming-languages compiler-construction
8 Answers

Of course once could use Java to write a new language. With the Java reflection-API You can achive a llot. If speed don't matters too much, I would give Java the preference instead of ASM. Programming is easier and less error-prone in Java (IMHO). Take a look at the RPN language 7th. It is entirely written in Java.

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