monkeylang 0.0.1

Following `Writing an interpreter in Go` book by Thorsten Ball. https://interpreterbook.com/

monkeylang

monkeylang is a toy programming language and interpreter implemented in Python, inspired by the book
Writing an Interpreter in Go.

This project exists purely for learning and experimentation. It follows the structure, ideas, and design presented in the book, but reimplements them in Python instead of Go.

---

About

Monkey is a small, interpreted language designed to be simple enough to implement from scratch while still being powerful enough to demonstrate real interpreter concepts, such as:

• Lexing and parsing
• Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs)
• Evaluation and environments
• Functions, closures, and control flow

This Python implementation closely mirrors the book’s original Go-based Monkey interpreter, with adjustments made where Python idioms differ from Go.

---

Installation

pip install monkeylang

This will install the monkey command-line tool.

---

Usage

You can invoke the Monkey interpreter directly from the command line:

monkey hello.mk

Where hello.mk is a file containing Monkey source code.

In the future, you can also start an interactive REPL:

monkey

---

Example

let greet = fn(name) {
    return "Hello, " + name;
};

greet("world");

---

Project Goals

• Learn how interpreters work by implementing one end-to-end
• Translate the concepts from Go into Python
• Keep the implementation simple, readable, and close to the book

This is not intended to be a production language or a fully featured runtime.

---

Credits

• Thorsten Ball — Author of Writing an Interpreter in Go
  https://interpreterbook.com/

• Original Monkey language design and Go implementation by Thorsten Ball

All core ideas, language design, and architecture are derived from the book. This repository is a Python reimplementation for educational purposes only.

---

License

This project is provided for educational use. Please refer to the book’s license and terms when reusing or redistributing ideas or code inspired by it.