Re: Best language for implementing compilers?

From	Bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	Re: Best language for implementing compilers?
Date	2019-02-11 12:59 +0000
Organization	virginmedia.com
Message-ID	<19-02-006@comp.compilers> (permalink)
References	<19-02-002@comp.compilers> <19-02-004@comp.compilers>

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On 08/02/2019 23:36, George Neuner wrote:
> On Fri, 8 Feb 2019 12:20:18 +0000, "Costello, Roger L."
> <costello@mitre.org> wrote:
>
>> What is it about ML that makes it such a good language for implementing
>> compilers?
>
> Compiling involves a lot of pattern matching, and pattern matching is
> a native feature of ML.

You mean for tokenising and parsing? That would be a small part of
compilation (the easy bit, in my view), although it seems to be a
preoccupation of this group.

But don't people (not me) tend to use external tools for that?

I would say that no special language features at all are required for
writing a compiler, even if parsing is directly coded in the language.

In fact it is one of the least demanding kinds of programs as usually it
will take one or more files as input, and write one or more files as output.

It doesn't even need flexible strings, as suggested in another post, as
most strings once encountered will be a fixed size. (Although
first-class string handling is useful if generating another source code
as output.)

--
bart
[If a language doesn't have some sort of data structures, pointers, and
dynamic memory allocation, writing a compiler in it will be painful. -John]

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Best language for implementing compilers? "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org> - 2019-02-08 12:20 +0000
  Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Nala Ginrut <nalaginrut@gmail.com> - 2019-02-09 00:27 +0800
  Re: Best language for implementing compilers? George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2019-02-08 18:36 -0500
    Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-02-11 12:59 +0000
      Re: Best language for implementing compilers? drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) - 2019-02-12 09:38 -0600
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) - 2019-02-19 11:22 -0500
          Re: Best language for implementing compilers? arnold@skeeve.com (Aharon Robbins) - 2019-02-20 11:48 +0000
      Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Kaz Kylheku <157-073-9834@kylheku.com> - 2019-02-12 16:45 +0000
      Re: Best language for implementing compilers? mertesthomas@gmail.com - 2019-03-09 01:47 -0500
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> - 2019-03-09 10:14 +0100
          Re: Best language for implementing compilers? George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2019-03-09 22:47 -0500
          Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Kaz Kylheku <157-073-9834@kylheku.com> - 2019-03-10 05:40 +0000
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-03-09 12:34 +0000
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2019-03-09 22:57 -0500
          Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Kaz Kylheku <157-073-9834@kylheku.com> - 2019-03-10 05:48 +0000
      Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Christopher F Clark <christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com> - 2019-03-10 04:13 -0700
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-03-10 15:33 +0000
          Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Christopher F Clark <christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com> - 2019-03-11 10:49 -0700
            Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> - 2019-03-12 06:54 +0100
              Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-03-13 01:50 +0000
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> - 2019-03-10 16:13 +0100
          Re: Best language for implementing compilers? Christopher F Clark <christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com> - 2019-03-11 10:06 -0700
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2019-03-10 18:23 -0400
        Re: Best language for implementing compilers? George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2019-03-10 18:58 -0400
  Re: Best language for implementing compilers? "Robin Vowels" <robin51@dodo.com.au> - 2019-02-09 19:58 +1100
  Best language for implementing compilers? David Lovemore <davidlovemore@gmail.com> - 2019-02-12 03:28 -0800
  Re: Best language for implementing compilers? mertesthomas@gmail.com - 2019-03-12 10:40 -0700

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