Build Your Own Programming Language - Second Edition

16

Domain Control Structures

The code generation that was presented in the previous chapters covered basic conditional and loop control structures, but domain-specific languages often have unique or customized semantics that merit introducing novel control structures. Adding a new control structure is usually substantially more difficult than adding a new function or operator. However, when they are effective, the addition of domain control structures is a large part of what makes domain-specific languages worth developing instead of just writing class libraries. The examples in this chapter should support this assertion, but it is based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which claims that language influences and constrains what we are able to think. ...