Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!news.glorb.com!news-out.readnews.com!news-xxxfer.readnews.com!news.misty.com!news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: "BartC" Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Good practical language and OS agnostic text? Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:41:26 +0100 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 27 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <12-04-079@comp.compilers> References: <12-04-056@comp.compilers> <12-04-075@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com X-Trace: leila.iecc.com 1335283655 63296 64.57.183.58 (24 Apr 2012 16:07:35 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:07:35 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: parse, interpreter, history Posted-Date: 24 Apr 2012 12:07:35 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:622 wrote > Uli Kusterer wrote: > >> IMO if you know assembler or BASIC and general algorithms (i.e. you >> could implement a binary tree and walk its nodes), and you can somehow > I have written a few interpreters and I thought about winging it but I > realize there is a science to compiling and there are right and wrong ways > to do things. I would like to do things the right way but maybe with my > weak background and broken undergrad CS degree that is expecting too much. I'm intrigued as to why you think writing compilers is a science but writing interpreters isn't? Interpreters can include a big chunk of what's in a compiler, and these days I think can be just as challenging. And I don't know about right ways and wrong ways to write programs, but for compilers there are probably formal and informal ways of implementing one. (Naturally, I've always done things informally; it wasn't my job to write compilers, they were just useful tools I created. But despite probably being considered toys, they were used to write actual commercial applications and to earn a living with!) BTW I don't think CS degrees existed when compilers started being created. -- Bartc