Reconsidering gcjx

Fri Jan 27 18:38:00 GMT 2006

"Kaveh R. Ghazi" <ghazi@caipclassic.rutgers.edu> writes:
> [...] IMHO, writing your frontend in the same language it's intended
> to compile causes it to be marginalized. It no longer becomes part
> of the default bootstrap sequence and gets much less testing. [..]

Even if so, it may be worth spelling out some of the obvious benefits
of writing a compiler in its own language:
- genuine bootstrapping capability (to compile itself, being a source
 of realistic test coverage)
- supplies "virtuous circle" motivation for improvement (speed,
 quality, ...), since it itself directly benefits
- providing a concrete, educational systems application of the
 language (rather than saying "language X would be great for writing
 compilers, but by the way here is an X compiler written in Y.)
- FChE