> It also occurred to me that if the language could describe itself (i.e. if the language and metalanguage were one in the same), and if the compiler were writt

> It also occurred to me that if the language could describe itself (i.e. if the language and metalanguage were one in the same), and if the compiler were written in its own language, then all I would have to do to change the language would be to change, the metalinguistic description and recompile the compiler three times and I would have a new compiler for the new language. An epiphany for the author: can a compiler be self-compiled? Bootstrapping would later be implemented in the B5000 but it had actually been accomplished 3 years earlier by the Naval Electronics Laboratory in 1958 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping_(compilers)#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping_(compilers)#Hist...