Re: What's the word for...

Just an extract from the jargon file (get the version 3.0 at
any GNU site, it's really excellent !) :
:break-even point: n. in the process of implementing a new computer
      language, the point at which the language is sufficiently effective
      that one can implement the language in itself. That is, for a new
      language called, hypothetically, FOOGOL, one has reached break-even
      when one can write a demonstration compiler for FOOGOL in FOOGOL,
      discard the original implementation language, and thereafter use
      working versions of FOOGOL to develop newer ones. This is an
      important milestone; see {MFTL}.


      [Since this entry was first written, several correspondents have
      reported that there actually was a compiler for a tiny Algol-like
      language called Foogol floating around on various {vaxen} in the
      early and mid-1980s. The above example may not, after all, be
      hypothetical. -- ESR]


    Sarayan
--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.