I'm 17 and wrote a guide on how to build your own programming language
Hey! I’m JC. I’m 17 and part of Hack Club, a nonprofit where we help teenagers ship programming projects with their friends while growing technically. A while ago, I asked myself the question, “How exactly do programming languages work behind the scenes?” It seemed really daunting until I went to a half hour workshop at a high school hackathon about writing a tree-walk interpreter and realized that getting started was actually super fun. This guide is designed in the vein of that - to get people, especially teenagers, started on learning how to build a programming language in a literal…
In plain words
This is a beginner-friendly guide for building a programming language, written by a 17-year-old and designed to be completed in a weekend. Intended primarily for teenagers and those new to language design, it demystifies how programming languages work by teaching tree-walk interpreter concepts through hands-on practice. The guide serves as an accessible stepping stone toward understanding compilers and performance optimization, drawing inspiration from established resources but emphasizing an approachable, project-based learning experience that can be accomplished quickly.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hey! I’m JC. I’m 17 and part of Hack Club, a nonprofit where we help teenagers ship programming projects with their friends while growing technically. A while ago, I asked myself the question, “How exactly do programming languages work behind the scenes?” It seemed really daunting until I went to a half hour workshop at a high school hackathon about writing a tree-walk interpreter and realized that getting started was actually super fun. This guide is designed in the vein of that - to get people, especially teenagers, started on learning how to build a programming language in a literal weekend by actually shipping one. It’s a stepping stone for learning the big things - compilers, optimizations for performance, etc. It’s very inspired by Crafting Interpreters and why’s poignant guide, but meant to be approachable in a weekend. Some backstory on me: A year ago I finished high school early and joined Hack Club full-time to build projects like this. I’ve been programming since COVID, and learned how to code primarily by shipping things that seemed daunting to me and taking inspiration from people taking the time to break down various topics online. Give it a try and take it out for a spin! Constructive feedback is also really appreciated. It’s open source on GitHub at https://github.com/hackclub/easel
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