5 ms·
Nice article! I tried out D a while back and I liked it a lot. I'm not sure I'll pick it back up again but it's certainly a possibility, especially if I feel co
by thinkpad20 13y ago
Nice article! I tried out D a while back and I liked it a lot. I'm not sure I'll pick it back up again but it's certainly a possibility, especially if I feel compelled to write C++ again... yikes. I'm a language geek myself; I'm working on a language, my third so far but this one is the farthest I've yet gotten and I'm really excited about it.
One question I have for Walter, when you were writing your compilers (both back in the day, and for D), how much did you just try to figure out yourself, and how much did you rely on literature to guide you? I tend to find it more fun to just try to do it myself, and only turn to literature when I'm really stuck. But obviously there's a bunch of valuable things to be found in books and articles, and they can save you from bad decisions or going down fruitless rabbit holes. As someone who's very experienced in language implementation, do you tend to invent your own algorithms, or rely more on academic and industry literature?
- WalterBright 13y agoI tended to have many amazing insights, only to discover I'd just reinvented the wheel. It's because I do not have an academic comp sci background. I learned how to do data flow analysis by taking a short course put on by Ullman and Hennessy. I learned about GC from the famous GC book. I learned a lot from people who started out saying "Walter, you damned ignorant fool! [...]" I've learned a lot about things that sound like great ideas but just don't work, from bitter experience. I try to pass this stuff on to the next generation, but they are usually determined to make the same mistakes. Oh well.
- zura 13y agoWalter, always wanted to ask you - what do you do for living? Is it something related to D or compilers in general (consulting maybe?). Also interesting if Digital Mars commercial compiler had/has any success.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- WalterBright 13y agodrag racing for pinks
- ced 13y agoI try to pass this stuff on to the next generation, but they are usually determined to make the same mistakes. Oh well. As someone working in the area of compilers... Do you have that advice written down anywhere?
- WalterBright 13y agoThe article is about it.
- ScottBurson 13y agoYou're too modest. This one is good too: http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/so-you-want-to-write-your-own-language/240165488 http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/so-you-want-t...
- rdc12 13y agoExcuse my ignorance, but which book on GC is the famous GC book, I recently looked at a book on GC from the Uni library, and it was pretty awful. Is there other books, papers, authors you would recommend related to compilers, optimisations, runtimes (vm or otherwise) and programming lanugauges?
- WalterBright 13y ago"Garbage Collection" by Richard Jones I'd recommend the Dragon Book, but it's a bit dated these days. Anything by Agner Fogg is good for optimization. There's always the D forum, where we're always going hammer and tong over every detail of how things work.
- rdc12 13y agoAre you aware of anything good for JIT compilers? Or is that more trawling throu dozens of papers material?
- WalterBright 13y agoI'm not aware of any books on the topic.