An introduction to Parrot
Birdsong
© Dmitry Pichugin, Fotolia
Parrot is an all-in-one tool for developing and executing new programming languages. Perl 6 runs on Parrot; chances are your language can run on it, too.
Are you exhausted from working on the same old code day after day? Is your programming language a clunker? Do you need a little more oomph to merge onto the information superhighway? Suffer no more. Coder's Kingdom has something for everyone, so come on down! Here's PHP 5: practical and great for the web with spunky bytecode acceleration. Or Ruby 1.9: this looker, fresh from the factory, is a real cloud-pleaser. Do you want to save a little cash? Try certified, pre-owned programming languages. Perl 5.8 is priced to move. Coder's Kingdom. Where every coder is king.
Coder's Kingdom might not exist, but choosing a programming language is strikingly similar to buying a car. Like a car, each programming language is designed with an intent, be it utility, speed, or size. Like a car, a language can offer exotic, cutting-edge features. Choosing a language is a significant investment, too, with potentially harmful and even disastrous consequences if the selection is ill considered. Additionally, each language includes mandatory parts – literals, variables, subroutines, and flow control instead of four tires, a steering wheel, and a windshield.
Indeed, the bulk of the work developing a new programming language is spent on (pardon the allusion) reinventing the wheel. The source of language must be decomposed by a parser, assembled into tokens, collated into statements, abstracted into syntax trees, and finally, either interpreted or converted into something executable, such as bytecode or binary.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.