How to make a .Net or JVM language?

Question

I am seeing all these new languages for .NET and JVM. How does one begin to make one?

I can't find any good documentation on JVM or MSIL specifications.

Edit

I already know how to parse, I am more interested in how there are so many people making new languages that are based on those platforms.

Answer 1

You're kind of in luck. There is an explosion of languages being developed for .NET, and there are articles / resources targeted at individuals such as yourself (not just large corporations with tons of money to invest).

Search for "dynamic language runtime", and go from there.

Here are some links:

Blog of the guy who is the brain behind IronPython

The home of the Dynamic Language Runtime

An article about how IronPython was implemented

A blog posting talking about abstract syntax trees and the DLR

Answer 2

The Java Virtual Machine Specifications, Second Edition is available online.

One can target the JVM by having a writing a compiler that produces Java bytecode (which is defined in the JVM specifications.)

Or, by utilizing existing libraries such as Apache BCEL, one can produce valid class files through a Java program without having to actually manipulate the bytecode at the byte-level.