Groups > comp.os.msdos.programmer > #4573

Re: Making a C compiler in Rust

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From	Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.lisp, comp.lang.c, comp.lang.asm, alt.lang.asm, comp.os.msdos.programmer, comp.lang.misc
Subject	Re: Making a C compiler in Rust
Date	Fri, 21 Aug 2026 15:03:35 -0700
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Cross-posted to 6 groups.

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Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> writes:
> It'll be a good exercise between coding a C compiler in Rust, so I have
> added comp.lang.misc to this discussion, since I am completely unaware
> of a group dedicated to Rust.  How would we make one?

Maybe you wanted comp.compilers.  A compiler doesn't seem like a great
idea of a beginning Rust project though, and Rust IMHO isn't that
attractive for the purpose.  Plus of course C is a terrible language for
which there are plenty of compilers: who needs another?

For a general book about compilers I'll suggest Andrew Appel's "Modern
Compiler Implementation in ML" (1998, if you can count that as modern)
in preference to the older Dragon book ("Principles of Compiler
Design"):

  https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/modern/

I also just saw somewhere (probably here) that Scott Burson's Zeta-C is
now downloadable from somewhere.  It's a C compiler for Lisp machines,
written in Zetalisp, which is fairly close to Common Lisp.  Since this
is still the Lisp newsgroup, maybe that's the most relevant.

Oh yikes, all that cross posting.  Sorry everyone.

Thread

Making a C compiler in Rust (was: Re: Resources to learn common lisp?) Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-21 13:06 +0800
  Re: Making a C compiler in Rust (was: Re: Resources to learn common lisp?) "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-21 11:34 +0100
    Re: Making a C compiler in Rust (was: Re: Resources to learn common lisp?) Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-08-21 14:13 +0300
      Re: Making a C compiler in Rust Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-22 02:23 +0800
  Re: Making a C compiler in Rust Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2026-08-21 15:03 -0700
    Re: Making a C compiler in Rust Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-22 07:24 +0800
      Re: Making a C compiler in Rust Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2026-08-21 16:48 -0700

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