Frequently Asked Questions

Why C?

This is one I get a lot. I chose C because it's widely implemented, and is frequently the only realistic option for targeting niche systems.

Like, systems where a "byte", defined as the minimum addressable unit of memory, is something other than 8 bits.

Plus, if I'm aiming to come earlier in bootstrap chains than, say, Rust, I can't exactly write my compiler in Rust.

What's The "Super Simple Bootstrap Bundle"?

This is something I intend to ship when I start distributing the compiler sources for real. It's a source tarball, but with the generated C code included. This reduces the number of build steps for a user of the bundle to 1, as they only need to invoke their C compiler on their chosen entry point, and that's it.

Without this, there are a total of 3 build steps. The first is building the C code generator. The second is running the C code generator. The third is building the compiler.