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FAWK: LLMs can write a language interpreter

(martin.janiczek.cz)
207 points todsacerdoti | 2 comments | 21 Nov 25 10:28 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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keepamovin ◴[21 Nov 25 11:09 UTC] No.46003360[source]▶
Yes! I'm currently using copilot + antigravity to implement a language with ergonomic syntax and semantics that lowers cleanly to machine code targeting multiple platforms, with a focus on safety, determinism, auditability and fail-fast bugs. It's more work than I thought but the LLMs are very capable.

I was dreaming of a JS to machine code, but then thought, why not just start from scratch and have what I want? It's a lot of fun.

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lionkor ◴[21 Nov 25 11:37 UTC] No.46003545[source]▶
Curious why you do this with AI instead of just writing it yourself?

You should be able to whip up a Lexer, Parser and compiler with a couple weeks of time.

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My_Name ◴[21 Nov 25 12:08 UTC] No.46003757[source]▶
Because he did it in a day, not a few weeks.

If I want to go from Bristol to Swindon, I could walk there in about 12 hours. It's totally possible to do it by foot. Or I could use a car and be there in an hour. There and back, with a full work day in-between done, in a day. Using the tool doesn't change what you can do, it speeds up getting the end result.

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1. lionkor ◴[21 Nov 25 16:06 UTC] No.46005755[source]▶
Yes, and the result is undoubtably trash. I have yet to see a single vibe-coded app or reasonably large/complex snippet which isn't either 1) almost an exact reproduction of a popular library, tutorial, etc. or 2) complete and utter trash.

So my question was, given that this is not a very hard thing to build properly, why not properly.

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2. simonw ◴[21 Nov 25 17:15 UTC] No.46006454[source]▶
The choice with this kind of question is almost never between "do it properly or do it faster with LLMs".

It's between "do it with LLMs or don't do it at all" - because most people don't have the time to take on an ambitious project like implementing a new programming language just for fun.