Re: Language used to write compilers

"stevenb" <s.bosscher@student.tudelft.nl>
30 Dec 2004 01:00:48 -0500

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Related articles
Language used to write compilers joe_hesse@actcx.com (Joe H.) (2004-12-29)
Re: Language used to write compilers dido@imperium.ph (Rafael 'Dido' Sevilla) (2004-12-30)
Re: Language used to write compilers nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (2004-12-30)
Re: Language used to write compilers s.bosscher@student.tudelft.nl (stevenb) (2004-12-30)
Re: Language used to write compilers vbdis@aol.com (2004-12-30)
Re: Language used to write compilers dido@imperium.ph (Rafael 'Dido' Sevilla) (2004-12-30)
Re: Language used to write compilers nick.roberts@acm.org (Nick Roberts) (2004-12-30)
Re: Language used to write compilers samiam@moorecad.com (Scott Moore) (2004-12-31)
Re: Language used to write compilers Martin.Ward@durham.ac.uk (Martin Ward) (2004-12-31)
Re: Language used to write compilers nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (2004-12-31)
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From: "stevenb" <s.bosscher@student.tudelft.nl>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 30 Dec 2004 01:00:48 -0500
Organization: http://groups.google.com
References: 04-12-148
Keywords: courses, practice
Posted-Date: 30 Dec 2004 01:00:48 EST

Joe H. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am thinking of taking a university course in compiler design. The
> instructor has chosen a book that teaches compiler implementation in
> Java. I always thought that compilers were usually written in C/C++.
>
> Question - what languages are used to write compilers?


What languages are not?


GCC is written in C, Open64 is written in C++, I've also seen
compilers written in Pascal, LISP, Perl, ML, Java, etc. I suppose the
most common languages for writing production compilers are C and C++,
but probably the reasons for that are efficiency, availability of
bootstrap compilers, and the history of the compiler - not the
superiority of these languages for writing compilers.


> My world is Unix/Linux - should I wait until a course is offered
> using C/C++?


No. You are not just going to learn how to build compilers in Java,
what matters is the concepts and ideas you will learn that matter.
Java is just a convenient language to get you started quickly.


Gr.
Steven

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