> since it's so trivial that it leaves the "how does a 'real' compiler parse" question unanswered.
I'm sure it is tempting to bake everything into this project. After implementing a "real" parser, you might want to implement a "real" transform, an optimizing step perhaps, you could keep going until it's totally unrecognizable (https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...)... the "give a mouse a cookie" effect applies here.
However, trying to teach everything at once isn't an effective way to teach people. I think this is largely why compilers are so unapproachable to most people.
I don't expect someone who has taken even just a simple Compilers 101 class to get anything out of this project. I'm hoping that I can make someone previously unaware of how compilers work to feeling somewhat comfortable with them. For a project that you can read through in 20-30 minutes, I think that's already a pretty big goal.
Self-hoisted compilers are cool, but that would contradict the goal of this project.
> since it's so trivial that it leaves the "how does a 'real' compiler parse" question unanswered.
I'm sure it is tempting to bake everything into this project. After implementing a "real" parser, you might want to implement a "real" transform, an optimizing step perhaps, you could keep going until it's totally unrecognizable (https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...)... the "give a mouse a cookie" effect applies here.
However, trying to teach everything at once isn't an effective way to teach people. I think this is largely why compilers are so unapproachable to most people.
I don't expect someone who has taken even just a simple Compilers 101 class to get anything out of this project. I'm hoping that I can make someone previously unaware of how compilers work to feeling somewhat comfortable with them. For a project that you can read through in 20-30 minutes, I think that's already a pretty big goal.
Self-hoisted compilers are cool, but that would contradict the goal of this project.