Language Implementation Patterns

Using a Script to Build 3D Scenes

Let’s say we wanted to build an English-like scripting language to draw 3D scenes. The language might look something like this:

The fastest way to get this running is probably with Pattern 24, ​Syntax-Directed Interpreter​. Most likely we wouldn’t care about speed. Issuing commands is a lot faster than rendering objects in 3D, so parsing and interpreting would not be the bottleneck. The interpreter would need Pattern 2, ​LL(1) Recursive-Descent Lexer​ and Pattern 3, ​LL(1) Recursive-Descent Parser​ or Pattern 4, ​LL(k) Recursive-Descent Parser​. To go beyond recognition, we’d need to add actions to the parser that respond to the ...