Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages

From	Derek <derek-nospam@shape-of-code.com>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages
Date	2024-06-11 00:28 +0100
Organization	Compilers Central
Message-ID	<24-06-009@comp.compilers> (permalink)
References	<24-06-003@comp.compilers> <24-06-005@comp.compilers>

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John,

> [I had two other thoughts.  One was that you can tell C was written when
> parsing was still hard enough that you didn't want to bulk the parsers
> up with semantic stuff.  The other was that in the languages where it is
> hard to write a valid problem, how much more likely is it that the program
> actually works once you get it to compile? -John]

C was created after Algol 68, whose 2-level grammar contained
syntax+semantics. Algol 68 programs automatically generated from the
language grammar should compile just fine. I suspect that output would
be rare, because generating the code needed to produce output would be
uncommon, and the path to it being the end result of a drunkards walk.

C had a kind-of conventional grammar, where-as Algol 68 grammar is
certainly not conventional (it might even be unique).
[I never heard of any other language using VW-grammars.  In C's
defense, the early compilers -John]

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Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages John R Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2024-06-10 14:21 +0200
  Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages Jon Chesterfield <jonathanchesterfield@gmail.com> - 2024-06-10 19:20 +0100
    Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages Derek <derek-nospam@shape-of-code.com> - 2024-06-11 00:28 +0100
    Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at - 2024-06-11 07:57 +0000
      Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages Derek <derek-nospam@shape-of-code.com> - 2024-06-11 22:45 +0100
        Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at - 2024-06-14 16:00 +0000
  Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages Derek <derek-nospam@shape-of-code.com> - 2024-06-10 20:30 +0100
  Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> - 2024-06-12 11:27 +0200

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