Talk:Self-hosting compiler

Too big?

Is it too big a task for RC? --Paddy3118 (talk) 08:44, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

I think so. I will work on making the task smaller.

(This was written by Zelah (Talk | contribs) at 01:02, 4 May 2014 (UTC))

I also think this is too big. In particular, I suspect that it's too big independent of the length of the code as compilation of a language is something that people work on for years. My aim with sizing of Rosetta Code tasks (when I get around to writing them) is that they be short enough to be done in less than 4 hours and long enough to be more than 10 minutes. Too short? Not interesting. Too long? Hardly anyone will try them.

Mechanically, that chunk of code is also visually too long on the page, and takes up too much of the page's content. However, these are things that it is pretty easy to fix with some mediawiki magic; focus on the complexity problems as they're much more serious. (And don't forget to sign your contributions to talk pages with --~~~~ so everyone doesn't get confused. Poking back through the page history to see who said what gets a little tiresome. ;-)) –Donal Fellows (talk) 07:53, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

Agreed, it is too complex. We could link to external projects that actually implement the compiler, but that is probably unhelpful for readers.--TimSC (talk) 06:01, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

Under described?

Does this task need a better description of what is needed. Is it maybe too language specific? --Paddy3118 (talk) 08:44, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps a Lisp ?

A smaller and simpler but still interesting task is might be to implement a Lisp kernel using any language.

(A second, and surprisingly modest, related task might be to implement a Lisp evaluator within the Lisp kernel :-) See http://www.paulgraham.com/rootsoflisp.html )