3 ms·

Why is the text editor even an issue? Anyone able to learn how to write a compiler is fully capable of deciding which editor or IDE to use.

• brudgers 7y ago
  The book isn't for people who are able to write compilers. When I discovered Hacker News, I'd never heard of Python. When I joined, I used Visual Studio Express, or rather Expresses because each was language locked. Obviously, I ran Windows. It was still four years until I bit the Emacs bullet. Yeah, installing and running Pascal wouldn't be a problem for me now. But I remember a time when it would have been. I remember what that was like. Half of all programmers are below average. I'm certainly one of them.
  • pjmlp 7y ago
    So they are in for a surprise, because even on FOSS friendly OSes programming languages aren't installed by default unless one choses either full installation or a development profile.
    • brudgers 7y ago
      Pythons, Perl, and gcc are commonly part of Linux distros. C compilers have been part of Unix since K&R. They are necessary to install the system. Hell, noobs rPi’s come with the Wolfram language too.
      • pjmlp 7y ago
        Being part of distros doesn't mean they are installed, specially on commercial UNIXes since compiler tools became a separate product. Better read the history of gcc, it was commercialization of UNIX C compilers introduced by Sun, that made people start paying attention to gcc. Until then it was a largely ignored effort. Finally I don't believe that anyone skilful enough to learn how to install Linux, is not able to install a compiler.