4 ms·

Previous discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5148895 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5148895 (where this was trashed pretty thoroughly). A

by agwa 14y ago

Previous discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5148895 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5148895 (where this was trashed pretty thoroughly). A few weeks ago the site said enrollments would close on February 15. On Feb 15 it said they would close "Very soon now." Now they close on March 15. That should indicate how few people are really falling for this. Edit: hang on - they have a press release claiming they got 10,000 enrollments and enrollment has been extended due to "popular demand": http://www.cppgm.org/news.html http://www.cppgm.org/news.html. This is surreal.

CJefferson 14y ago
I am positive those 10,000 fall into two groups: 1) People who understand this is impossible, and are interested to see what they are actually going to do. 2) People who don't realise this is impossible.
- bsaul 14y ago
  Ok, you made me honestly curious. What makes you think writing a tokenizer in C++ is impossible ? I didn't see any deadline, but is it because of time ? They even provide some algorithmic hints on how to do it...
  - xymostech 14y ago
    The tokenizer is the easy part. The overall goal of this, writing a C++11 compliant compiler + associated standard libraries is going to be near impossible.
  - esrauch 14y ago
    I think he means the full course goal, given that the first assignment assignment is not the hard part.
  - CJefferson 14y ago
    A tokenizer is very reasonable. I would even have believed a complete C compiler, although that is a huge undertaking. But C++ is, as far as I am aware, the hardest language to compile in popular use.
  - thwest 14y ago
    The project aims to build not just the tokenizer, but a complete compiler and standard library. None of GCC, Clang, Microsoft or Intel can provide a complete, bug free C++11 implementation. If you hang out in freenode's ##c++, you'll see people finding new corner cases every day. It's reasonable to consider this project impossible for an individual.

by agwa 14y ago

CJefferson 14y ago

I am positive those 10,000 fall into two groups: 1) People who understand this is impossible, and are interested to see what they are actually going to do. 2) People who don't realise this is impossible.

bsaul 14y ago
Ok, you made me honestly curious. What makes you think writing a tokenizer in C++ is impossible ? I didn't see any deadline, but is it because of time ? They even provide some algorithmic hints on how to do it...
- xymostech 14y ago
  The tokenizer is the easy part. The overall goal of this, writing a C++11 compliant compiler + associated standard libraries is going to be near impossible.
- esrauch 14y ago
  I think he means the full course goal, given that the first assignment assignment is not the hard part.
- CJefferson 14y ago
  A tokenizer is very reasonable. I would even have believed a complete C compiler, although that is a huge undertaking. But C++ is, as far as I am aware, the hardest language to compile in popular use.
- thwest 14y ago
  The project aims to build not just the tokenizer, but a complete compiler and standard library. None of GCC, Clang, Microsoft or Intel can provide a complete, bug free C++11 implementation. If you hang out in freenode's ##c++, you'll see people finding new corner cases every day. It's reasonable to consider this project impossible for an individual.