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> because it’s the lingua franca of conversations about compilers and interpreters There are many materials, compilers, and interpreters that use ocaml and has

> because it’s the lingua franca of conversations about compilers and interpreters There are many materials, compilers, and interpreters that use ocaml and haskell, for example. C isn't the only one. That's why I'd prefer pseudo code instead of C, so that I could use this book without learning a specific language only for it.

chrisseaton 4y ago
I really don’t understand what you’re planning to do the first time someone says to ‘check the header file’ to understand how some system call works.
- rhn_mk1 4y ago
  For that, you don't need to know C the language, but C the calling convention https://gankra.github.io/blah/c-isnt-a-language/ https://gankra.github.io/blah/c-isnt-a-language/
  - chrisseaton 4y ago
    This doesn't make any sense. Even you knew the C calling convention, but not C, where are you going to get documentation for system calls that doesn't use C code? The Linux, macOS, etc documentation uses C.
    - t-3 4y ago
      Reading the headers and prototypes in the man pages doesn't require "knowing" C. You just need to know the very simple subset of C's syntactical rules and the calling conventions. Anyway, reading C is far easier than writing C, most popular languages use the same syntax and operators.
- dunefox 4y ago
  I don't know what that has to do with learning about compilers and interpreters.
  - chrisseaton 4y ago
    > I don't know what that has to do with learning about compilers and interpreters. Compilers and interpreters, unless they're running on bare metal, which is very niche, talk to the operating system using something called 'system calls' to ask for resources that they can't provide themselves, like virtual memory space and IO. These system calls are documented in C. For example I wrote a Ruby compiler in Ruby, but I still need to know about the mmap system call, which is documented in C, to allocate my memory. https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/doc/memory.md https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/doc/memory.... https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/mmap.2.html https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/mmap.2.html https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/lib/rhizomeruby/memory.rb#L72 https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/lib/rhizome...
    - dunefox 4y ago
      Now I can finally reply: that makes sense, and in hindsight is quite obvious, thanks. My general lack of knowledge in this area is a part of why I'd like to study it more, but preferably I'd like to use a language I'm already comfortable with. C is just very far removed from everything I have use for and am interested in.
    - Koshkin 4y ago
      > These system calls are documented in C. Sure, but the compiler will still have to generate machine code for those.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
ethanwillis 4y ago
Well, the author shouldn't have to potentially learn another language just to write a book on compilers and interpreters. Maybe... MAYBE you don't have to read this book.
- dunefox 4y ago
  > Maybe... MAYBE you don't have to read this book. Where did I say I have to read it or that the author should learn another language? Nowhere. I said I wish it wasn't using C so that I could read it more easily.

chrisseaton 4y ago

I really don’t understand what you’re planning to do the first time someone says to ‘check the header file’ to understand how some system call works.

rhn_mk1 4y ago
For that, you don't need to know C the language, but C the calling convention https://gankra.github.io/blah/c-isnt-a-language/ https://gankra.github.io/blah/c-isnt-a-language/
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  This doesn't make any sense. Even you knew the C calling convention, but not C, where are you going to get documentation for system calls that doesn't use C code? The Linux, macOS, etc documentation uses C.
  - t-3 4y ago
    Reading the headers and prototypes in the man pages doesn't require "knowing" C. You just need to know the very simple subset of C's syntactical rules and the calling conventions. Anyway, reading C is far easier than writing C, most popular languages use the same syntax and operators.
dunefox 4y ago
I don't know what that has to do with learning about compilers and interpreters.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  > I don't know what that has to do with learning about compilers and interpreters. Compilers and interpreters, unless they're running on bare metal, which is very niche, talk to the operating system using something called 'system calls' to ask for resources that they can't provide themselves, like virtual memory space and IO. These system calls are documented in C. For example I wrote a Ruby compiler in Ruby, but I still need to know about the mmap system call, which is documented in C, to allocate my memory. https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/doc/memory.md https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/doc/memory.... https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/mmap.2.html https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/mmap.2.html https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/lib/rhizomeruby/memory.rb#L72 https://github.com/chrisseaton/rhizome/blob/main/lib/rhizome...
  - dunefox 4y ago
    Now I can finally reply: that makes sense, and in hindsight is quite obvious, thanks. My general lack of knowledge in this area is a part of why I'd like to study it more, but preferably I'd like to use a language I'm already comfortable with. C is just very far removed from everything I have use for and am interested in.
  - Koshkin 4y ago
    > These system calls are documented in C. Sure, but the compiler will still have to generate machine code for those.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

ethanwillis 4y ago

Well, the author shouldn't have to potentially learn another language just to write a book on compilers and interpreters. Maybe... MAYBE you don't have to read this book.

dunefox 4y ago
> Maybe... MAYBE you don't have to read this book. Where did I say I have to read it or that the author should learn another language? Nowhere. I said I wish it wasn't using C so that I could read it more easily.