createlang.rs

What It Is

Create Your Own Programming Language with Rust is a free English online tutorial with text and illustrations, designed to help readers build their own programming language in Rust. The material is distributed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 and includes code on GitHub. It is not a live course or a recorded course in the traditional sense; it is closer to an open-source textbook you can follow along with.

Core Content and Learning Path

The course focuses on compilers, interpreters, and programming language implementation. It starts with the simplest Calculator language, covering PEG, pest, ASTs, interpreters, bytecode VMs, and JIT. It then moves into Firstlang, adding variables, functions, control flow, and recursion. Secondlang introduces static typing, type inference, optimization passes, and LLVM JIT. Thirdlang goes further into classes, methods, constructors/destructors, heap allocation, and memory management. The progression is clear and well suited to understanding, through projects, how language features are implemented in practice.

Pricing, Certificates, and Instructors

The main text does not show any fees, subscriptions, paid downloads, or certificate mechanism, so it can be considered free self-study material. It also does not provide detailed background information about the author or organization. In terms of support, it only mentions that readers can donate to Child Foundation, Black Lives Matter, or Food Bank of Canada if they find the material useful; there is no indication of Q&A, assignment review, community support, or job-related services.

Pros and Cons

Its main strength is its highly engineering-oriented path. The example languages gradually expand from an 18-line grammar to a 140-line grammar, allowing learners to see how the same AST can be executed through different backends such as an interpreter, VM, and JIT. The downside is that the barrier to entry is not low: readers need basic Rust knowledge before starting, and the second half also requires nightly Rust and LLVM, making environment setup potentially challenging for beginners. In addition, it lacks video explanations, Chinese-language materials, and learning support services.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is suitable for developers who have already read or are currently learning Rust and want to gain a deeper understanding of compiler theory, interpreters, JIT, LLVM, and language design. It is not suitable as a beginner programming course for absolute beginners. The main text does not make it possible to judge access from China. GitHub-related resources may be unstable in mainland China’s network environment, but whether the domain itself can be accessed directly requires actual testing. Alternative resources include Crafting Interpreters, the LLVM Kaleidoscope tutorial, the official Rust Book, and open courses on compiler principles.