All software developers use languages, which are the fundamental tool of the trade. Despite curiosity about how languages work, few developers actually understand how. Unfortunately, most texts on language and compiler development are hard to digest, written from academic platforms for use in college-level computer science programs. On the other hand, Build Your Own .NET Language and Compiler demystifies compiler and language development, and makes the subjects palatable for all programmers.

This practical book presents techniques that you can apply to everyday work. You’ll learn to add scripts and macro languages to your applications, add runtime expression evaluation to their applications, and generate code immediately. Further, you will learn parsing techniques, which are essential to extract information from any structured form of data—like text files, user input, XML, or HTML. As a bonus, the book includes a complete QuickBasic compatible compiler with source code that works. The compiler illustrates the book’s techniques and acts as a versatile .NET language.