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Playing chess is easy. Playing good chess - not so much. Playing world class chess - good luck.
by RagnarD 3y ago
Playing chess is easy.
Playing good chess - not so much.
Playing world class chess - good luck.
- atan2 3y agoSometimes people just want to learn how to play chess, and that's ok.
- blt 3y agoBut a lot of programmers think compilers are magic. Maybe because they read about stuff like parser generators, register allocators, optimizations, etc., that are not strictly necessary. It's empowering to remind people that a seemingly hard task is within their reach.
- lawn 3y agoPeople always think that what they dont understand is magic, and when they do understand it they think its simple. For example: React, Operating Systems, AI, CSS and assembly.
- RagnarD 3y agoTo elaborate, I've written a number of compilers in years past. I highly recommend it as an exercise in learning about parsing, code emission, etc. Anything that gets a developer closer to understanding that process, rather than a mystery black box, is a very good thing. So I'm not trying to be a downer, just noting that it can rapidly become an extremely complex task to make an excellent compiler which includes end user expected code optimizations, informative error messages, syntax error recovery, etc.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- khazhoux 3y agoI'm not sure anyone would think otherwise, though.