[plt-scheme] Books on Lisp interpreter implementation in C?

From: Prabhakar Ragde (plragde at uwaterloo.ca)
Date: Wed Nov 5 17:02:12 EST 2008

Noel wrote (in reply to Grant):

 >> Any recommended books on Lisp interpreter implementation in C?
 >
> Maybe Lisp in Small Pieces, though I think it focuses on compilers.
> However the interpreter techniques in, say, SICP or PLAI carry over to
> C -- they're just more work to implement in C.

I second the recommendation of Lisp in Small Pieces for anything but a 
toy interpreter [1]. But even for those, the PLAI or EOPL techniques 
aren't entirely straightforward to transfer to C, as there are going to 
be stack issues. You pretty much have to get to the later chapters of 
those references to really understand how to do it properly. --PR

[1] Note that the word "toy" is not intended to be derogatory here. 
Writing these and playing with them has considerable educational value.


Posted on the users mailing list.