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(transpiler) I think it's pretty useful. It signifies that the translation is "fairly" simple, as in the case of CoffeeScript, as opposed to traditional compile
by xixixao 11y ago
(transpiler) I think it's pretty useful. It signifies that the translation is "fairly" simple, as in the case of CoffeeScript, as opposed to traditional compilers targeting assembly or byte code, or even something like Emscripten. It implies that the translation is hand tuned to the target language to be minimal. (I believe Jeremy pretty much coined the term). See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source-to-source_compiler https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source-to-source_compiler
- pjmlp 11y agoExcept that anyone with background in compiler design knows that compilation to another language is just yet another way to implement the language. It is a common design pattern to make the compiler output code in one of the OS SDK languages as a means to speed up development and ease prototyping.
- xixixao 11y agoThat's quite the point, for a transpiler targeting another language is not just "a way to implement it". It is a conscious decision with many pros and cons and an impact on the transpiled language itself.
- pjmlp 11y agoExcept no one ever spoke of transpilers when C compilers generated Assembly, C++, Objective-C and Eiffel generated C and so forth. It was just the output of the compiler.