Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
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Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#2Is amateur the right word?
I am in it for the money which I guess makes me a pro but I don't have a computer science background and frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution.
Another big issue is nontraditional compilers of many kinds such as js accelerators and things that compile to JavaScript, domain specific languages, data flow systems, etc. Frankly I want to generate Java source or JVM byte code and could care less for real machine code.
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#3[deleted]
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#4I recommend http://createyourproglang.com/ too if you want something very simple and you don't know where to start.
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#5Is amateur the right word? I am in it for the money which I guess makes me a pro but I don't have a computer science background and frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution. Another big issue is nontraditional compilers of many kinds such as js accelerators and things that compile to JavaScript, domain specific languages, data flow systems, etc.…
The target language shouldn't make much of a difference, should it?
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#6Is amateur the right word? I am in it for the money which I guess makes me a pro but I don't have a computer science background and frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution. Another big issue is nontraditional compilers of many kinds such as js accelerators and things that compile to JavaScript, domain specific languages, data flow systems, etc.…
"frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution."
What do you mean by that?
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#7Is amateur the right word? I am in it for the money which I guess makes me a pro but I don't have a computer science background and frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution. Another big issue is nontraditional compilers of many kinds such as js accelerators and things that compile to JavaScript, domain specific languages, data flow systems, etc.…
"frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution." What do you mean by that?
They are still teaching undergrads how to make compilers that give incomprehensible error messages, etc. Compiler technology has the possibility of making a dent in the essential difficulty of getting computers to solve problem and the compiler class is not oriented towards those needs.
There's nothing exciting about coding up a toy version of "Pascal" but it would be exciting if you could add the "unless" construction from Perl to Java in We are just now coming out of a dark ages in compilers that was brought on by gcc.
Before gcc you could make a living writing compilers (i.e. Turbo C, Turbo Pascal, Turbo Prolog, ...) at a moderately sized company. Today you have gcc and you have compilers from the likes of Intel and Microsoft.
LLVM breathed some life into gcc since it is now modularized so that you can do interesting things on top of gcc.
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#8Is amateur the right word? I am in it for the money which I guess makes me a pro but I don't have a computer science background and frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution. Another big issue is nontraditional compilers of many kinds such as js accelerators and things that compile to JavaScript, domain specific languages, data flow systems, etc.…
The target language shouldn't make much of a difference, should it?
It makes a huge difference.
If you are compiling for x86 you have to think about register allocation.
If you are compiling for JVM or an HLL, you don't. A good chunk of what is discussed in that article just is not relevant anymore.
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#9Is amateur the right word? I am in it for the money which I guess makes me a pro but I don't have a computer science background and frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution. Another big issue is nontraditional compilers of many kinds such as js accelerators and things that compile to JavaScript, domain specific languages, data flow systems, etc.…
"frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution." What do you mean by that?
I'm not the OP, but I sympathize. The specific details covered in a "classical" compilers course are heavy weight and not super-relevant right now. These days you don't have to understand LR parsing or touch a parser-generator, you don't have to worry about register coloring... etc. Courses still use the Dragon Book which is older than I am and covers a bunch of stuff only relevant to writing compilers for C on resource-constrained systems.
Instead, I figure a course should cover basics of DSL design, types and type inference, working with ASTs, some static analysis and a few other things. That has some overlap with a traditional compilers course, but a pretty different focus.
Re: Resources for Amateur Compiler Writers
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
"frankly in 2016 I am afraid the average undergrad compiler course is part of the problem as much as the solution." What do you mean by that?
I'm not the OP, but I sympathize. The specific details covered in a "classical" compilers course are heavy weight and not super-relevant right now. These days you don't have to understand LR parsing or touch a parser-generator, you don't have to worry about register coloring... etc. Courses still use the Dragon Book which is older than I am and covers a bunch of stuff only relevant to writing compilers for C on resou…
So, the TAPL ? :)