Hasty Briefsbeta

Revisiting "Let's Build a Compiler"

2 days ago
  • #programming
  • #tutorial
  • #compilers
  • The Let's Build a Compiler series by Jack Crenshaw (1988-1995) remains influential despite its age and outdated technologies.
  • The tutorial was translated to Python and emits WebAssembly, making it more accessible to modern programmers.
  • The tutorial's effectiveness lies in its conversational style, recursive-descent parser approach, and immediate code generation.
  • Syntax-directed translation is used, but it shows limitations with types and optimization.
  • The tutorial is a great introduction to compiler building, and the GitHub repository provides a modernized version for current readers.