Build a WebAssembly Language for Fun and Profit: Lexing

WebAssembly (wasm) is a high-performance assembly-like format optimized for the web, enabling demanding desktop-class apps to run in browsers. The WebAssembly team developed binaryen, a powerful compiler toolchain library that facilitates wasm adoption by offering dead code removal, code size reduction, and performance optimizations. A guide on building languages using wasm has been created, focusing on intermediate to advanced software developers looking for a fun side project. The guide covers setup, lexing, parsing, and compiling, with the first part covering setup and lexing. The lex function takes a string input and outputs an array of tokens, which are then identified as specific types such as integers, floats, identifiers, and brackets. A simple example, wispy, is used to demonstrate the lexer's functionality, outputting tokens that represent the code's structure. With the lexer working, the next step will be parsing these tokens into a logical tree for compilation to wasm.

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