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How I wrote a self-hosting C compiler in 40 days

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429 points rui314 | 2 comments | 14 Dec 15 14:07 UTC | HN request time: 1.264s | source
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sdegutis ◴[14 Dec 15 14:55 UTC] No.10731279[source]▶
Thought this was going to be an inspiration to me to continue with my pet project of writing my own little programming language. But it starts off on day 8 with him already having written a basic compiler, with no explanation of how he did any of the basics. Still interesting, just not what I thought it was.
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jwmerrill ◴[14 Dec 15 15:11 UTC] No.10731384[source]▶
I think the best inspiration to take here is that the best way to write a compiler in 40 days is to first write one in 400 days.

From the first entry:

> Implementing these features is easy because this is the second time for me.

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1. btrask ◴[14 Dec 15 15:49 UTC] No.10731648[source]▶
And thus, the 10X programmer.
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2. evanmoran ◴[14 Dec 15 19:51 UTC] No.10733314[source]▶
This is quite well said. It never occurred to me that 10x programmer is just the programmer who has already written code that grappled with the ideas that matter most. By your fifth compiler, all the basics seem easy.