Thanks, I was thinking of more used languages, such as c, python, java, javascript (they'd have greater need of good engineering, wouldn't they?). I don't kno

Thanks, I was thinking of more used languages, such as c, python, java, javascript (they'd have greater need of good engineering, wouldn't they?). I don't know Haskell or Rust well enough to appreciate their compiler engineering (and haven't heard of CompCert). But I might have a look at their source - I have a long-term project about tree transforms ATM and hadn't thought of looking at what compilers do (even though I was aware of Knuth's attribute grammars). Yeah, nah, I think your "core operation" is a reasonable definition, both as primary function, and as the basic design (despite crafted tweaks atop).