Skip to Content
Language Implementation Patterns
book

Language Implementation Patterns

by Terence Parr
December 2009
Intermediate to advanced
380 pages
9h 2m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from Language Implementation Patterns
Pattern 10Normalized Heterogeneous AST

Purpose

This pattern implements an abstract syntax tree (AST) using more than a single node data type but with a normalized child list representation.

Discussion

This pattern is a variation on Pattern 9, Homogeneous AST. All we’re doing differently is distinguishing between nodes with our implementation language’s type system. Because this pattern also uses a normalized child list, we can derive heterogeneous nodes using AST from Pattern 9, Homogeneous AST as a base class.

This pattern makes the most sense when we need to store node-specific data and plan on using Pattern 13, External Tree Visitor. The normalized child list makes it much easier to build external visitors. If you need lots of node-specific ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’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.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI 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.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’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.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'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.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Implementation Patterns

Implementation Patterns

Kent Beck
API Design Patterns

API Design Patterns

John J. Geewax
Microservices Patterns

Microservices Patterns

Chris Richardson

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781680500097Errata Page