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Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

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Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#11

Post by icsa »

AndyKelley wrote: post #4

Hello HN! Here is some context to decorate this announcement: The Zig self-hosted compiler codebase consists of 197,549 lines of code. There are several different backends, each at varying levels of completion. Here is how many behavior tests are passing: LLVM: 1101/1138 (97%) WASM: 919/1138 (81%) C: 740/1138 (65%) x86_64: 725/1138 (64%) arm: 490/1138 (43%) aarch64: 411/1138 (36%) As you might guess, the one that thi…

> uses significantly less memory, and represents a modest performance improvement.

The reduced memory has significant value. Being able to do the same build on less expensive hardware or do more with the same hardware is a significant financial performance improvement

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#12

Post by erwincoumans »

AndyKelley wrote: post #4

Hello HN! Here is some context to decorate this announcement: The Zig self-hosted compiler codebase consists of 197,549 lines of code. There are several different backends, each at varying levels of completion. Here is how many behavior tests are passing: LLVM: 1101/1138 (97%) WASM: 919/1138 (81%) C: 740/1138 (65%) x86_64: 725/1138 (64%) arm: 490/1138 (43%) aarch64: 411/1138 (36%) As you might guess, the one that thi…

Congratulations with the milestone!

Does using Zig over C++ lead to "less memory, and represents a modest performance"? Or was the C++ implementation a bit sloppy? (lacking data oriented design for instance)

Also, what specifically are you most excited using Zig for?

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#13

Post by carapace »

AndyKelley wrote: post #4

Hello HN! Here is some context to decorate this announcement: The Zig self-hosted compiler codebase consists of 197,549 lines of code. There are several different backends, each at varying levels of completion. Here is how many behavior tests are passing: LLVM: 1101/1138 (97%) WASM: 919/1138 (81%) C: 740/1138 (65%) x86_64: 725/1138 (64%) arm: 490/1138 (43%) aarch64: 411/1138 (36%) As you might guess, the one that thi…

Congratulations!

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#14

Post by viraptor »

dottedmag wrote: post #7
fouronnes3 wrote: post #5

Are there any languages out there that can only be compiled by a compiler written in their own language? Presumably because the original pre-dogfood compiler stopped being maintained years ago. So that if we somehow lost all binaries of the current compiler, that language would effectively be lost?

C?

You're commenting on an article about Zig which became self-hosted and can compile C. (There's also lots of other C compilers available)

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#15

Post by kristoff_it »

jonpalmisc wrote: post #6

I think Zig’s compatibility with C is such a valuable feature. I also wish we could rewrite everything in a modern language, but the reality is that we can’t and that if we could, it would take a LONG time. The ability to start new projects, or extend existing ones, with a modern and more ergonomic language—Zig—and be able to seamlessly work with C is incredible. I look forward to the self-hosted compiler being compl…

> I also wish we could rewrite everything in a modern language, but the reality is that we can’t and that if we could, it would take a LONG time. The ability to start new projects, or extend existing ones, with a modern and more ergonomic language—Zig—and be able to seamlessly work with C is incredible.

That's the Maintain it With Zig approach :^)

https://kristoff.it/blog/maintain-it-with-zig/

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#16

Post by pjmlp »

jitl wrote: post #8
jonpalmisc wrote: post #6

I think Zig’s compatibility with C is such a valuable feature. I also wish we could rewrite everything in a modern language, but the reality is that we can’t and that if we could, it would take a LONG time. The ability to start new projects, or extend existing ones, with a modern and more ergonomic language—Zig—and be able to seamlessly work with C is incredible. I look forward to the self-hosted compiler being compl…

Zig as the “Kotlin of C” makes it very appealing. Kotlin has seen fantastic adoption in JVM projects because you can convert files one at a time from .java to .kt, with only a modicum of one-time build system shenanigans up front. Then your team can gain experience gradually, fill in missing pieces like linters over time, all without redesigning your software. What zig offers is even better - because zig included a C…

Kotlin has seen fantastic adoption in Android projects, because of the way Google pushes it, while stagnating Android Java on purpose.

On the JVM world not really.

https://www.infoq.com/news/2022/03/jrebel-report-2022/

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#17

Post by Grimburger »

pjmlp wrote: post #16
jitl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zig as the “Kotlin of C” makes it very appealing. Kotlin has seen fantastic adoption in JVM projects because you can convert files one at a time from .java to .kt, with only a modicum of one-time build system shenanigans up front. Then your team can gain experience gradually, fill in missing pieces like linters over time, all without redesigning your software. What zig offers is even better - because zig included a C…

Kotlin has seen fantastic adoption in Android projects, because of the way Google pushes it, while stagnating Android Java on purpose. On the JVM world not really. https://www.infoq.com/news/2022/03/jrebel-report-2022/

As someone not familiar with android development, this is somewhat confusing because I always thought Google was pushing dart/flutter for mobile these days?

Or is it both at once?

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#18

Post by [deleted] »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #5

Are there any languages out there that can only be compiled by a compiler written in their own language? Presumably because the original pre-dogfood compiler stopped being maintained years ago. So that if we somehow lost all binaries of the current compiler, that language would effectively be lost?

[deleted]

Re: Zig self hosted compiler is now capable of building itself

#20

Post by joshbaptiste »

icsa wrote: post #11
AndyKelley wrote: post #4

Hello HN! Here is some context to decorate this announcement: The Zig self-hosted compiler codebase consists of 197,549 lines of code. There are several different backends, each at varying levels of completion. Here is how many behavior tests are passing: LLVM: 1101/1138 (97%) WASM: 919/1138 (81%) C: 740/1138 (65%) x86_64: 725/1138 (64%) arm: 490/1138 (43%) aarch64: 411/1138 (36%) As you might guess, the one that thi…

> uses significantly less memory, and represents a modest performance improvement. The reduced memory has significant value. Being able to do the same build on less expensive hardware or do more with the same hardware is a significant financial performance improvement

yup 18x memory reduction improvement 8.5GB -> 0.5GB according to the vid..
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