Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!news.misty.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED!nerds-end From: Richard Hable Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: self-hosting, was Writing A Plain English Compiler Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 19:50:02 +0100 Organization: Compilers Central Lines: 15 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <14-11-028@comp.compilers> References: <14-11-004@comp.compilers> <14-11-005@comp.compilers> <14-11-007@comp.compilers> <14-11-014@comp.compilers> <14-11-016@comp.compilers> <14-11-020@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed X-Trace: miucha.iecc.com 1415735092 37821 2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970 (11 Nov 2014 19:44:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 19:44:52 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: debug, practice Posted-Date: 11 Nov 2014 14:44:52 EST 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:1436 On 11/09/14 02:16, BartC wrote: > Self-hosting (implementing a language in itself) is a nice touch, but > I don't think it's that important, perhaps because people are > realising that the best language to implement a compiler in, is not > necessarily the language that is being compiled. Unless of course you > are trying to use a single language for everything.) I think, the main advantage of self-hosting is that it can be used as one big unit test: you can compile the compiler with itself, use the resulting compiler to compile itself again, and check if the result is exactly the same. Richard