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Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

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Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#51

Excited to see another project targeting the QBE back end, from what I can tell it's a great lightweight alternative to LLVM.

Unfortunately the QBE code is really strange so if you need to make some changes yourself it probably won't be very fun

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#52
post #28
post #7

For me the only reason to use pascal is GUI apps but this doesn't have it.

I have not used Pascal, but things that appeal to me (other than GUI apps) are that it seems simple to learn, and is readable, fast and compiles fast. What languages would be better in these ways?

Forth could make a case for "faster" in compilation, at least, since it's aggressively machine-level(in a traditional assembly-up bootstrapped system) but blends a mix of interpreted and compiled. Readable and fast in the real-world cases, OTOH, is a matter of taste and engineering practice. I'm doing hobby Forth and it's a blast - it starts off as a crude load-and-store Fortran-like language, and gradually evolves as you stumble into new idioms. If I had to work with a team, I would probably yearn for a Pascal where some bureaucratic boundaries exist on what can be done.

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#54
post #20

Sorry, I don't trust a compiler project that's done in 3 weeks (I've checked the repo commits history). Downvote this if you want.

is this done? from what I read it's not really (i.e. community) started. Go a bit deeper than the commit history and look at the person behind the project. As we enter the AI developer winter the personal reputation of the author is going to become incredibly critical IMO.

There's no any ai winter on the horizon. Yet.

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#55
post #52
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not used Pascal, but things that appeal to me (other than GUI apps) are that it seems simple to learn, and is readable, fast and compiles fast. What languages would be better in these ways?

Forth could make a case for "faster" in compilation, at least, since it's aggressively machine-level(in a traditional assembly-up bootstrapped system) but blends a mix of interpreted and compiled. Readable and fast in the real-world cases, OTOH, is a matter of taste and engineering practice. I'm doing hobby Forth and it's a blast - it starts off as a crude load-and-store Fortran-like language, and gradually evolves a…

Thanks, that sounds interesting. I learned a tiny bit for Forth for fun a long time ago but no one else seems to use it and it does not seem to have much of an ecosystem so it looks like its only for niche hobby projects? What sort of projects do you use it for?

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#56
post #51

Excited to see another project targeting the QBE back end, from what I can tell it's a great lightweight alternative to LLVM.

Unfortunately the QBE code is really strange so if you need to make some changes yourself it probably won't be very fun

That's good to know. Can you point to an example?

Re: Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE

#58
post #7

For me the only reason to use pascal is GUI apps but this doesn't have it.

Congratulations on your projects, Graeme! When Blaise gets an IDE, make sure the editor component is modern, pleasant to work with (like vscode, for example) and with proper support for fonts. All things that Lazarus missed.
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