Yes, in fact for building a language the parsing stage should be skipped altogether (start with interpreter or bytecode). We do this in the interpreters class.

Yes, in fact for building a language the parsing stage should be skipped altogether (start with interpreter or bytecode). We do this in the interpreters class. And once you have a fully working VM, _now_ it is a good time to shift to parsing and design a good syntax. For recursive descent we have a separate class "Building a Recursive descent parser from scratch" which is purely practical coding class for those interested mainly in practice.