It has always been possible to do this kind of things (we have C, C++, Java) but I don't think people have been this semi-successful with reimplementing a bunch

It has always been possible to do this kind of things (we have C, C++, Java) but I don't think people have been this semi-successful with reimplementing a bunch of common tools. Where are all the X re-implemented in C/C++/Java?