What programming languages, without a runtime, besides C, are good for writing programming languages? [closed]

Question

I'm looking into a hobby of writing a toy programming language, partly from minor annoyances with other languages, partly so that I can understand what it's like, but mostly just to fool around.

On the off chance that it gets really useful, I don't want it to depend on the run-time of another programming language for programs written in it to run. That is, I want the interpreter / compiler to itself be a program compiled natively into the target OS (language itself may be interpreted / provide a run-time).

Is there any alternative to doing this besides C? What are some advantages / disadvantages or using each?

Clarification 1: I am not intending to go low-level enough to write kernels, filesystems, device drivers, boot loaders. However I would like to be able to manage my own memory.

Clarification 2: Due to a terminology error / misunderstanding, and since I was so used to the C runtime running on various OS's, I said that C does not have a runtime / and or I am not interested in a runtime. A better way to say what I really want is that my programs compile natively into the target (desktop) OS without needing to install additional software from the bootstrapping language.

2.1: if I write the compiler/interpreter in python, I don't want the emitted executables to depend on the python program.

2.2: if I use a compiling step, for instance, to compile the programs using perl, I don't want the emitted executables to depend on a libperl.dll/so.

2.3: the exception is with runtimes is C since the C runtime is usually installed on almost all desktop OS's as many core OS tools depend on it.

Answer 1

You could use any language that has an existing compiler that emits native code without dependencies. C and C++ are pretty good bets because their runtimes are available pretty much everywhere (even more so in C).

One approach in your language build-up that could be well worth trying is this: make your compiler output C (or C++). Then you can use all the existing ecosystem around those languages and their runtimes (linkers, object dumpers, debuggers, etc...), even plan integration with existing code.

Those tools would be useful both for the users of your language, and obviously for yourself while you're experimenting on that toy language.

Once you get to the point where your language is "self-hosted" (i.e. your compiler is written in your own language), you'll be able to start thinking about doing away with the whole C part and write a native code compiler, with its runtime.

Good luck :-)

Also make sure you go look at LLVM. It's a "compiler infrastructure". That is probably the best place to start with these days to implement a new language. The documentation is pretty good, and the tutorials include building a toy language.