Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Paul Rubin 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 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 23 Message-ID: <87ik53nnbc.fsf@nightsong.com> References: <110a9pp$ckmk$6@dont-email.me> <110j4qk$2q1p4$1@dont-email.me> <110l0v9$3av52$1@dont-email.me> <110nf0q$3vra6$3@dont-email.me> <87y0gg62cx.fsf@nightsong.com> <110rfqf$142ot$1@dont-email.me> <111ne5o$vsm3$3@dont-email.me> <111pbk6$36pi7$1@dont-email.me> <111sb7u$3ua8h$7@dont-email.me> <8fj54lpvg7v6mhi9r9u39tpojbjage8br4@4ax.com> <87mrwdyt0t.fsf@nightsong.com> <1127cho$34rpg$3@dont-email.me> <112o4aa$cpek$2@dont-email.me> <87jyqdtumj.fsf@gmail.com> <87bjbn2nhs.fsf@safunu.org> <114j8kl$34k3s$1@dont-email.me> <8733wtuwti.fsf@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2026 22:03:40 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="714935"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19+1a4V4YhyzMf/NWuSso1S"; posting-host="f9f7371564c034a6ca049b693bd402b3" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/27.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Cr8GzMwIm5KEKRLtcMo85hKOqM8= sha1:4TNXzz03WOtYVh0iWauq447MCBw= sha256:HHXcU56nNARE+zjNjDj/msiuLWMFEUVLH6YSR5LU1fU= sha1:ObstNMl9JiFlSjTQsxZ/l6FPhGM= sha256:qm7ZXtmcziMX2GE/M09uo2drfvuh/d7qWBvErWaJw6w= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.lisp:61524 comp.lang.c:401416 alt.lang.asm:8880 comp.os.msdos.programmer:4573 comp.lang.misc:11814 Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson 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.