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Writing a transpiler is easily the most boring and tedious job you can have, especially if the target or source language is useless (so you don't learn anything
by almostgotcaught 1y ago
Writing a transpiler is easily the most boring and tedious job you can have, especially if the target or source language is useless (so you don't learn anything useful as a matter of course).
- eru 1y agoUnlambda is a thoroughly useless language, but writing a compiler from any sane language to Unlambda would teach you a lot, including some useful things.
- chihuahua 1y agoI once briefly worked on a transpiler from Windows .BAT ("batch script", going back to DOS) to C#. The reason we wanted this is because some part of the Windows build system was a huge pile of .BAT files plus some PowerShell. The .BAT files were so unpleasant to work with, that we figured it would be good to at least translate them to a language that is easier to understand. We didn't learn anything "useful" except we got to understand things like the bizarre FOR construct for the first time. I'm sure Raymond Chen could write an airtight argument why the batch scripting language HAD TO BE exactly the way it is, and there was no alternative to iterating over files and lists using the FOR command with its bizarre flags, but once he leaves the room, I'll go back to insisting that this is one of the most screwed up things that have ever been done with software, and it's a travesty that this was still being used to run the Windows build system at Microsoft in 2013.