What kind of knowledge do you need to invent a new programming language?

Posted by systempuntoout on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by systempuntoout
Published on 2010-04-04T20:36:11Z Indexed on 2010/04/23 21:43 UTC
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knowledge

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programming-languages

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language-agnostic

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compiler

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self-improvement

I just finished to read "Coders at works", a brilliant book by Peter Seibel with 15 interviews to some of the most interesting computer programmers alive today.
Well, many of the interviewees have (co)invented\implemented a new programming language.
Some examples:

Joe Armstrong: Inventor of Erlang
L. Peter Deutsch: implementer of Smalltalk-80
Brendan Eich: Inventor of JavaScript
Dan Ingalls: Smalltalk implementor and designer
Simon Peyton Jones: Coinventor of Haskell
Guy Steele: Coinventor of Scheme

Is out of any doubt that their minds have something special and unreachable, and i'm not crazy to think i will ever able to create a new language; i'm just interested in this topic.

So, imagine a funny\grotesque scenario where your crazy boss one day will come to your desk to say "i want a new programming language with my name on it..take the time you need and do it", which is the right approach to studying this fascinating\intimidating\magic topic?

What kind of knowledge do you need to model, design and implement a brand new programming language?

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