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The Zig developers would strongly disagree that a compiler is not a performance-critical application, and they would also probably disagree that Zig doesn't bri
by dralley 4y ago
The Zig developers would strongly disagree that a compiler is not a performance-critical application, and they would also probably disagree that Zig doesn't bring anything to the table when it comes to writing compilers.
As a generalization, the people who are motivated enough to work on a language, want to use that language. It's only natural that they would want to write their compiler in that language too, if practical. Contributors to the Zig project would on average probably be more proficient and productive in Zig than they would be in a language they don't care about so much.
It's also just helpful to have the people who are designing the language working in that language regularly in the context of a sizable and nontrivial project.
- grumpyprole 4y ago> The Zig developers would strongly disagree that a compiler is not a performance-critical application, Have they written am incremental compiler then? Or just an old-fashioned slow batch one? Compiler architecture matters much more than whether it's runtime has a GC or not.
- RussianCow 4y agoWhat does that have to do with the choice of programming language? You can't implement an incremental compiler in Zig?
- grumpyprole 4y ago> What does that have to do with the choice of programming language? It's more important than the choice of programming language. Not all C++ is fast. > You can't implement an incremental compiler in Zig? I never said this. This is a thinly veiled ad hominem.
- RussianCow 4y ago> I never said this. I understood your original comment to imply that you disagree with their choice of self-hosting the Zig compiler because they should instead have focused on architectural improvements, in which case I disagree because the two things are completely orthogonal in my mind—the benefits of self-hosting have little to do with performance, and certainly don't come at the cost of it. I apologize if that's not what you were implying. > This is a thinly veiled ad hominem. I never personally attacked you, so I'm not sure why you think this is ad hominem. That's a very uncharitable interpretation of my comment.
- grumpyprole 4y agoI agree with your points above. Apologies for being grumpy.
- dralley 4y agoYes, that is something they care about https://kristoff.it/blog/zig-new-relationship-llvm/ https://kristoff.it/blog/zig-new-relationship-llvm/ https://mobile.twitter.com/andy_kelley/status/1565109859770863617 https://mobile.twitter.com/andy_kelley/status/15651098597708...
- grumpyprole 4y agoGlad to see it and more important than implementation language I think.