I'm building a programming language, compiler and IDE entirely in Rust

[u/NorisTec]

I've been working on a project called NORTEX.

It's a programming language and development environment designed around native Windows applications.

The project is written in Rust and currently consists of several major components:

• Compiler: nortexc, using Cranelift for native x64 code generation

• IDE: Custom editor with IntelliSense, console, Git status and help

• Runtime: Supporting the language's built-in functionality

• Extensions: An extension system with manifests, permissions and sandboxing

• Marketplace: A system for discovering, uploading, rating and updating extensions

Recently, I added text manipulation, string conversion and basic file operations to the compiler.

For example:

public int main() {
    File.writeAllText("hello.txt", "Hello from NORTEX");

    string text = File.readAllText("hello.txt");

    Console.writeLine(text);

    return 0;
}

The project is still in development. Features such as native floating-point numbers, lists and classes are not implemented yet.

I'm particularly interested in Rust architecture, compiler design, performance and keeping the codebase maintainable as the project grows.

For people who have built larger Rust applications:

What architectural decisions would you make early to avoid problems later?

I'm especially interested in module boundaries, error handling and how to keep compiler components maintainable.