Writing "Writing An Interpreter In Go" In TypeScript

Date: 08/2020, Repository: wafuwafu13/Interpreter-made-in-TypeScript

I wrote Writing An Interpreter In Go in TypeScript up to chapter 2.
This article will focus on the analysis of let statements.

environment building

I used TypeScript, webpack, Jest, ESLint, Prettier.
first commit

Lexer

It takes source code as input and returns a sequence of tokens representing that source code as output.
Replacing Go Struct with JavaScript class worked.

type Lexer struct {
    input        string 
    position     int
    readPosition int
    ch           byte
}

func New(input string) *Lexer {
    l := &Lexer{input: input}
    l.readChar()
    return l
}

func (l *Lexer) readChar() {
    if l.readPosition >= len(l.input) {
        l.ch = 0
    } else {
        l.ch = l.input[l.readPosition]
    }
    l.position = l.readPosition
    l.readPosition += 1
}

->

export interface LexerProps {
  input: string;
  position: number;
  readPosition: number;
  ch: string | number;
}

export class Lexer<T extends LexerProps> {
  input: T['input'];
  position: T['position'];
  readPosition: T['readPosition'];
  ch: T['ch'];

  constructor(
    input: T['input'],
    position: T['position'] = 0,
    readPosition: T['readPosition'] = 0,
    ch: T['ch'] = '',
  ) {
    this.input = input;
    this.position = position;
    this.readPosition = readPosition;
    this.ch = ch;

    this.readChar();
  }

  readChar(): void {
    if (this.readPosition >= this.input.length) {
      this.ch = 'EOF';
    } else {
      this.ch = this.input[this.readPosition];
    }
    this.position = this.readPosition;
    this.readPosition += 1;
  }

AST

It is used as an internal representation of the source code.
In Go, the type of the Value field is Expression, but in TypeScript, the type of the Identifier class was used as in the Name field.

type Node interface {
    TokenLiteral() string
    String() string
}

type Statement interface {
    Node
    statementNode()
}

type Expression interface {
    Node
    expressionNode()
}

type Program struct {
    Statements []Statement
}

func (p *Program) TokenLiteral() string {
    if len(p.Statements) > 0 {
        return p.Statements[0].TokenLiteral()
    } else {
        return ""
    }
}

func (p *Program) String() string {
    var out bytes.Buffer

    for _, s := range p.Statements {
        out.WriteString(s.String())
    }

    return out.String()
}

type LetStatement struct {
    Token token.Token
    Name  *Identifier
    Value Expression
}

func (ls *LetStatement) statementNode() {}

func (ls *LetStatement) TokenLiteral() string { return ls.Token.Literal }

func (ls *LetStatement) String() string {
    var out bytes.Buffer

    out.WriteString(ls.TokenLiteral() + " ")
    out.WriteString(ls.Name.String())
    out.WriteString(" = ")

    if ls.Value != nil {
        out.WriteString(ls.Value.String())
    }

    out.WriteString(";")

    return out.String()
}

type Identifier struct {
    Token token.Token
    Value string
}

func (i *Identifier) expressionNode() {}
func (i *Identifier) TokenLiteral() string { return i.Token.Literal }
func (i *Identifier) String() string { return i.Value }

->

export interface ProgramProps {
  statements:
    | LetStatement<LetStatementProps>[]
    | ReturnStatement<ReturnStatementProps>[]
    | ExpressionStatement<ExpressionStatementProps>[];
}

export class Program<T extends ProgramProps> {
  statements: T['statements'];

  constructor(statements: T['statements'] = []) {
    this.statements = statements;
  }
}

export interface LetStatementProps {
  token: Token<TokenProps>;
  name: Identifier<IdentifierProps>;
  value?: Identifier<IdentifierProps>;
}

export class LetStatement<T extends LetStatementProps> {
  token: T['token'];
  name?: T['name'];
  value?: T['value'];

  constructor(token: T['token']) {
    this.token = token;
  }

  tokenLiteral(): string | number {
    return this.token.literal;
  }

  string(): string {
    let statements = [];
    statements.push(this.tokenLiteral() + ' ');
    statements.push(this.name!.string());
    statements.push(' = ');

    if (this.value != null) {
      statements.push(this.value.string());
    }

    statements.push(';');

    return statements.join('');
  }
}

export interface IdentifierProps {
  token: Token<TokenProps>;
  value: string | number;
}

export class Identifier<T extends IdentifierProps> {
  token: T['token'];
  value: T['value'];

  constructor(token: T['token'], value: T['value']) {
    this.token = token;
    this.value = value;
  }

  tokenLiteral(): string | number {
    return this.token.literal;
  }

  string(): string | number {
    return this.value;
  }
}

Parser

It takes input data and builds an abstract syntax tree data structure.
Since the Type Guard was cumbersome, I defined a new DEFAULT token.
commit

func (p *Parser) parseLetStatement() *ast.LetStatement {
    stmt := &ast.LetStatement{Token: p.curToken}

    if !p.expectPeek(token.IDENT) {
        return nil
    }

    stmt.Name = &ast.Identifier{Token: p.curToken, Value: p.curToken.Literal}

    if !p.expectPeek(token.ASSIGN) {
        return nil
    }

    p.nextToken()

    stmt.Value = p.parseExpression(LOWEST)

    if p.peekTokenIs(token.SEMICOLON) {
        p.nextToken()
    }

    return stmt
}

->

parseLetStatement(): LetStatement<LetStatementProps> {
    const stmt: LetStatement<LetStatementProps> = new LetStatement(
      this.curToken,
    );

    if (!this.expectPeek(TokenDef.IDENT)) {
      return stmt;
    }

    stmt.name = new Identifier(this.curToken, this.curToken.literal);

    if (!this.expectPeek(TokenDef.ASSIGN)) {
      return stmt;
    }

    while (!this.curTokenIs(TokenDef.SEMICOLON)) {
      this.nextToken();
    }

    return stmt;
  }

Testing

I used Jest.

func TestLetStatements(t *testing.T) {
    tests := []struct {
        input              string
        expectedIdentifier string
        expectedValue      interface{}
    }{
        {"let x = 5;", "x", 5},
        {"let y = true;", "y", true},
        {"let foobar = y;", "foobar", "y"},
    }

    for _, tt := range tests {
        l := lexer.New(tt.input)
        p := New(l)
        program := p.ParseProgram()
        checkParserErrors(t, p)

        if len(program.Statements) != 1 {
            t.Fatalf("program.Statements does not contain 1 statements. got=%d",
                len(program.Statements))
        }

        stmt := program.Statements[0]
        if !testLetStatement(t, stmt, tt.expectedIdentifier) {
            return
        }

        val := stmt.(*ast.LetStatement).Value
        if !testLiteralExpression(t, val, tt.expectedValue) {
            return
        }
    }
}

->

describe('testLetStatement', () => {
  const tests = [
    { input: 'let x = 5;', expectedIdentifier: 'x', expectedValue: 5 },
    { input: 'let y = true;', expectedIdentifier: 'y', expectedValue: true },
    {
      input: 'let foobar = y;',
      expectedIdentifier: 'foobar',
      expectedValue: 'y',
    },
  ];

  for (const test of tests) {
    const l = new Lexer(test['input']);
    const p = new Parser(l);

    const program: Program<ProgramProps> = p.parseProgram();

    it('checkParserErrros', () => {
      const errors = p.Errors();
      if (errors.length != 0) {
        for (let i = 0; i < errors.length; i++) {
          console.log('parser error: %s', errors[i]);
        }
      }
      expect(errors.length).toBe(0);
    });

    it('parseProgram', () => {
      expect(program).not.toBe(null);
      expect(program.statements.length).toBe(1);
    });

    const stmt: LetStatement<LetStatementProps> | any = program.statements[0];

    it('letStatement', () => {
      expect(stmt.token.literal).toBe('let');
      expect(stmt.name.value).toBe(test['expectedIdentifier']);
      expect(stmt.value.value).toBe(test['expectedValue']);
    });
  }
});

Debugging

It may just be that I am new to Go and debugging was not the right way to do it, but with TypeScript, I was able to debug the AST structure cleanly.

->