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Considering that many compilers are written in the language they compile I was surprised by the Zig compiler being written in C++. Does anybody know the reason

• euan_torano 7y ago
  The stage 1 compiler is written in C++, but the Stage 2 compiler will be Zig: https://github.com/ziglang/zig#stage-2-build-self-hosted-zig-from-zig-source-code https://github.com/ziglang/zig#stage-2-build-self-hosted-zig... Eventually, i'll be Zig all the way down, but the language needs to get to the point where it can actually support writing a compiler for itself (and Andrew has some big plans for the way the compiler should work from what I understand).
  • floatboth 7y ago
    Hopefully stage1 will remain indefinitely for bootstrapping, like LDC's ltsmaster.
• nicoburns 7y ago
  Compilers have to be bootstrapped from another language (most commonly C and C++) to get going. Zig is only just getting to a point of maturity where it would be feasible to self-host, and it's still missing any sort of object/trait system, which are the sorts of things you really miss on large projects.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• runevault 7y ago
  It isn't even 1.0 yet, far too early to be talking about bootstrapping the compiler.