January 2026
Intermediate to advanced
372 pages
8h 14m
English
Content preview from Building Programming Language Interpreters
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7
Values, Containers, and the Language Meta-Model
The way a programming language deals with variables, values, and complex data structures defines what the code written in that language looks like. In this chapter, we’ll go through the following topics:
- How programming languages differentiate the abstract concept of a value from the transient states of a variable
- The distinction that programming languages make on containers that hold values
- How the mutability of values influences the design of the language
- The support for copies, references, and shared values in the design
- How to create a coherent design to address all those requirements
By the end of this chapter, you will have a nuanced understanding of how the aforementioned aspects affect ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.