Start by clarifying the language's scope and requirements, then define a minimal but extensible AST for nodes and functions. Walk through the design of the evaluator, emphasizing environment handling and recursion, and finally discuss trade-offs and potential extensions.
Pro tip: Demonstrate incremental development: begin with a simple version that supports basic node and function constructs, then iteratively add features like closures or error handling. This shows you can deliver working solutions while managing complexity.
Ask questions to understand the expected complexity, syntax preferences, and evaluation semantics. Define what 'node' and 'function' mean in this context (e.g., AST nodes, function declarations with parameters and body).
Define data structures for nodes (e.g., literals, variables, function calls) and functions (e.g., name, parameters, body). Use a class hierarchy or tagged unions for clarity and extensibility.
Write an evaluator that traverses the AST, using an environment to store variable bindings and function definitions. Handle function calls by creating a new scope with parameter bindings and evaluating the body.
Ensure functions can call themselves and other functions, and that variable scoping follows lexical rules. Discuss how to manage the call stack and prevent infinite recursion.
Talk about design choices such as eager vs. lazy evaluation, error handling, and performance. Suggest possible extensions like closures, higher-order functions, or a parser.
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