QBE – Compiler Back End • Hacker News Board

QBE – Compiler Back End

#1

Post by smartmic » Fri, May 08, 2026, 7:00 AM UTC

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#2

Post by superdisk » Fri, May 08, 2026, 1:55 PM UTC

Cool project, and FWIW it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this. I did that and then was able to compile my little custom language to the N64.

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#3

Post by graemeg » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:06 PM UTC

Do you know if there is ongoing work to support x86_64 on Windows?

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#4

Post by ursuscamp » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

superdisk wrote: post #2

Cool project, and FWIW it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this. I did that and then was able to compile my little custom language to the N64.

Truly amazing times. Just doing things has never been easier, and it has really reinvigorated me.

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#5

Post by vintagedave » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC

superdisk wrote: post #2

Cool project, and FWIW it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this. I did that and then was able to compile my little custom language to the N64.

> I did that

Can you contribute it? I don't see it listed as an official backend.

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#6

Post by lucrbvi » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

I really like QBE but I hope they will make it a true library because I don't want to launch a subprocess to compile a program.

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#7

Post by kouosi » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:15 PM UTC

vintagedave wrote: post #5

superdisk wrote: post #2

Cool project, and FWIW it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this. I did that and then was able to compile my little custom language to the N64.

> I did that Can you contribute it? I don't see it listed as an official backend.

> Can you contribute it? I don't see it listed as an official backend.

I don't think anyone wants AI generated contribution to QBE (neither do I).

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#8

Post by Rochus » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:44 PM UTC

superdisk wrote: post #2

Cool project, and FWIW it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this. I did that and then was able to compile my little custom language to the N64.

> it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this

Can you provide the code somewhere? Is it complete? Does it really work? I have a hard time to believe that an LLM really can generate a complete and working backend for a target architecture with "one prompt". From my experience with such tools, by the end of the day it takes longer until it covers all edge cases and actually works than when writing it myself.

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#9

Post by Tiberium » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

Rochus wrote: post #8

superdisk wrote: post #2

Cool project, and FWIW it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this. I did that and then was able to compile my little custom language to the N64.

> it's like one Claude prompt to add MIPS support to this Can you provide the code somewhere? Is it complete? Does it really work? I have a hard time to believe that an LLM really can generate a complete and working backend for a target architecture with "one prompt". From my experience with such tools, by the end of the day it takes longer until it covers all edge cases and actually works than when writing it myself…

They absolutely can for simpler cases like this, especially recent GPT 5.x models are amazing at such lower-level compiler work.

Re: QBE – Compiler Back End

#10

Post by Tiberium » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:51 PM UTC

Also relevant: https://git.sr.ht/~mcf/cproc is a C compiler on top of QBE