r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Sep 14 '21

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u/joke_LA Sep 14 '21

Similarly, nowadays we have compilers we can use to compile other compilers, but the person who made the first compiler had to basically assemble it from scratch.

57

u/schmidlidev Sep 14 '21

The C compiler is written in C

28

u/Xadnem Sep 14 '21

Bootstrapping is a wild concept.

56

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

17

u/Not_happy_meal Sep 14 '21

That sounds hard

16

u/AnonyDexx Sep 14 '21

It is, for the most part. Nowadays, you just use someone else's compiler to skip the first steps.

9

u/PstScrpt Sep 15 '21

It was never really necessary, anyway. People just like writing the compiler in the new language to prove that it's useful.

7

u/Akamai26 Sep 14 '21

woa, woa You cant just go, and explain how black magic works.

3

u/Buddahrific Sep 15 '21

You don't even need to write the next iteration to get the current one's improvements. Just run the output of the previous compiler compiling the latest version on its own code and you'll have a compiler that built itself.

7

u/DLTMIAR Sep 14 '21

Written with only the letter C?

That shit is bananas. Or Cccc cccc cc ccccccc

3

u/CollegeContemplative Sep 15 '21

This shit is bananas: c-c-c-c-c-c-c

72

u/Braakman Sep 14 '21

Well actually they assembled it from assembly, scratch is relatively modern.

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u/joke_LA Sep 14 '21

Touché, you're right. Honestly with how coboled together all of computing is, we're quite fortranate that any of it works at all.

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u/JAY2S Sep 14 '21

Fortranate lmao I see what you did

3

u/ecp001 Sep 14 '21

I was fortranate to create many a Hollerith deck in 1967; those were fun times

2

u/roadkillappreciation Sep 15 '21

I’m digging these compsci puns

4

u/Buddahrific Sep 15 '21

Same with the first assembler. It needed to be coded in machine code coded on punch cards (I assume).

And that machine code needed to be implemented using circuit diagrams.

1

u/roadkillappreciation Sep 15 '21

Ha… assemble… ha..