Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.spitfire.i.gajendra.net!not-for-mail
From: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: =?UTF-8?Q?Re=3A_Naughty_C=E2=99=AF?=
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2026 11:53:07 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
Message-ID: <10jlhf3$dl2$2@reader2.panix.com>
References: <CtydnVqzjrtfd5P0nZ2dnZfqn_adnZ2d@giganews.com> <wcKcnf79-cR4ysH0nZ2dnZfqnPqdnZ2d@giganews.com> <10jiufh$1an77$1@paganini.bofh.team> <ZN-dnY--SfIc4MD0nZ2dnZfqnPednZ2d@giganews.com>
Injection-Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2026 11:53:07 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: reader2.panix.com; posting-host="spitfire.i.gajendra.net:166.84.136.80"; logging-data="13986"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com"
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010)
Originator: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross)
Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:80668 alt.folklore.computers:233321

In article <ZN-dnY--SfIc4MD0nZ2dnZfqnPednZ2d@giganews.com>,
c186282  <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
>On 1/6/26 07:16, Waldek Hebisch wrote:
>> In alt.folklore.computers c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
>> <snip>
>>>    Hmm ... look at all the GNU 'compilers' -
>>>    FORTRAN, COBOL, Ada, 'D', M2, Rust,C++,
>>>    G++, even Algol-68. None are 'compilers'
>>>    per-se, but to-'C' TRANSLATORS. So, 'C',
>>>    pretty much All Are One And One Is All.
>> 
>> No.  Compiler as first stage translate given language to a
>> common representation.  This representatiton is different
>> than C.  Ada and GNU Pascal have parametrized types, there
>> is nothing like that in C.  C++ (and some other languages)
>> have exceptions, C do not have them.  There are several
>> smaller things, for example Ada or Pascal modulo is different
>> that C/Fortran modulo.  During optimization passes gcc
>> keeps such information, to allow better optimization and
>> error reporting.
>> 
>> There were/are compilers that work by translating to C.  But
>> this has limitations: generated code typically is worse because
>> language specific information is lost in translation.  Error
>> reporting is worse because translator is not doing as many
>> analyzes as gcc do.  For those reasons compilers in gcc
>> generate common representation which contains sum of features
>> of all supported languages and not C.
>
>   You give it a file in whatever lang, it produces
>   a file in 'C' and compiles that.

No.  That's not how it works.  This is factually wrong.

	- Dan C.