Hacker News with Generative AI: Compilers

Parsing JSON in 500 lines of Rust (krish.gg)
Last semester at university, I took a course called "Syntax-Based Tools and Compilers". It focused on building a scanner, parser, compiler, and so on for a language called PL0. We used Python in the course, but I was really interested in learning Rust at the time.

Programming, Rust, JSON, Parsing, Compilers

115 points by KrishKrish 2 days ago | 57 comments

RPython Compilation Quick Reference (tilde.town)
Well first things first, this is way more ram hungry than you'd expect, and you're restricted to python 2. BUT, you do end up with nice fast binaries at the end. So let's proceed!

Python, Programming, Performance, Compilers

3 points by amcclure 2 days ago | 0 comments

Eigen Compiler Suite (openbrace.org)
Welcome to the official website of the Eigen Compiler Suite, a free and self-contained software development toolchain.

Compilers, Open Source

8 points by andsoitis 5 days ago | 0 comments

How do modern compilers choose which variables to put in registers? (stackexchange.com)
How do modern compilers choose which variables to put in registers?

Compilers, Programming, Optimization, Computer Science, Assembly Language

396 points by azeemba 6 days ago | 65 comments

Explaining my fast 6502 code generator (2023) (pubby.games)
To learn how optimizing compilers are made, I built one targeting the 6502 architecture. In a bizarre twist, my compiler generates faster code than GCC, LLVM, and every other compiler I compared it to.

Programming, Computer Architecture, Compilers, Optimization, 6502

108 points by zdw 7 days ago | 20 comments

Ways to generate SSA (bernsteinbear.com)
Static Single Assignment is a program representation where each “variable” (though this term can be misleading) is assigned exactly once. Mostly the variables aren’t variables at all, but instead names for values—for expressions. SSA is used a lot in compilers. I’m making this page to catalog the papers I have found interesting and leave a couple of comments on them.

Programming, Compilers, Static Analysis

110 points by g0xA52A2A 9 days ago | 34 comments

Nocc – A Distributed C++ Compiler (github.com/VKCOM)
nocc propagates a compiler invocation to a remote machine: nocc g++ 1.cpp calls g++ remotely, not locally.

Distributed Computing, C++, Compilers

62 points by gjvc 10 days ago | 33 comments

Compiling Array Languages for SIMD [pdf] (vmchale.com)

Compilers, SIMD, Array Languages

52 points by vmchale 11 days ago | 13 comments

GCC 15 Compiler Showing Off Nice Performance Improvements on AMD Zen 5 (phoronix.com)
There were a number of other applications with small but consistent performance improvements when built by GCC 15.

GCC, Compilers, Performance, AMD, Zen 5

7 points by rbanffy 13 days ago | 1 comments

The inevitability of the borrow checker (yorickpeterse.com)
When defining a type in Inko, it's allocated on the heap by default.

Programming Languages, Compilers, Memory Management

140 points by rbanffy 14 days ago | 77 comments

Java JIT Compiler and Runtime in Common Lisp (github.com/atgreen)
OpenLDK is a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler and runtime environment for Java, implemented entirely in Common Lisp.

Java, Common Lisp, Programming Languages, Runtime Environments, Compilers

8 points by nemoniac 14 days ago | 1 comments

OpenLDK: A Java JIT compiler and runtime in Common Lisp (github.com/atgreen)
OpenLDK is a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler and runtime environment for Java, implemented entirely in Common Lisp.

Java, Lisp, Compilers, Runtime Environments, Open Source

212 points by varjag 15 days ago | 61 comments

From recursive descent to LR via Pratt parsing (2021) (abubalay.com)

Programming, Compilers, Parsing, Computer Science

8 points by fanf2 18 days ago | 0 comments

Amsterdam Compiler Kit for Cray X-MP (github.com/kej715)
This fork of the Amsterdam Compiler Kit supports the Cray X-MP supercomputer and the COS operating system platform.

Supercomputers, Programming Languages, Operating Systems, Compilers

93 points by basementcat 25 days ago | 11 comments

Tilde, My LLVM Alternative (yasserarg.com)
I'm Yasser and I've made it my mission to produce an alternative to LLVM, the current king of compiler backend libraries. I'm calling it Tilde (or TB for tilde backend) and the reasons are pretty simple, i believe it's far too slow at compiling and far too big to be fixed from the inside. It's been 20 years and cruft has built up, time for a "redo".

Programming, Compilers, Open Source, Software Engineering

361 points by davikr 30 days ago | 159 comments

Clang now more aggressively uses undefined behavior on pointer addition overflow (github.com/llvm)
Clang will now more aggressively use undefined behavior on pointer addition overflow for optimization purposes.

Programming, Compilers, Optimization, Software, Undefined Behavior

4 points by remexre 31 days ago | 1 comments

Porting the GNAT Ada compiler to macOS/aarch64 (briancallahan.net)
After getting a port of GDC working on my new MacBook Pro, there are still two languages left in the GCC suite that I don't have: Ada and Go.

Programming Languages, macOS, Compilers

20 points by goranmoomin 36 days ago | 1 comments

Porting the GNAT Ada compiler to macOS/aarch64 (briancallahan.net)
After getting a port of GDC working on my new MacBook Pro, there are still two languages left in the GCC suite that I don't have: Ada and Go.

Programming, Compilers, macOS, Apple Hardware, Open Source

99 points by ingve 38 days ago | 11 comments

Sony Proposes Changing LLVM Clang Default to C++20 Mode (phoronix.com)
Sony engineers are proposing that the LLVM Clang compiler changes its default C++ mode from C++17 to C++20.

C++, Compilers, LLVM, Software, Programming

13 points by needlesslygrim 40 days ago | 0 comments

Finding Missed Code Size Optimizations in Compilers Using LLMs (arxiv.org)
Compilers are complex, and significant effort has been expended on testing them. Techniques such as random program generation and differential testing have proved highly effective and have uncovered thousands of bugs in production compilers. The majority of effort has been expended on validating that a compiler produces correct code for a given input, while less attention has been paid to ensuring that the compiler produces performant code.

Compilers, Code Optimization, Artificial Intelligence

3 points by matt_d 45 days ago | 0 comments

Lightstorm: Minimalistic Ruby Compiler (llvm.org)
Some time ago I was talking about an ahead-of-time Ruby compiler. We started the project with certain goals and hypotheses in mind, and while the original compiler is at nearly 90% completion, there are still those other 90% that needs to be done.

Ruby, Compilers, Programming Languages

146 points by eutropia 52 days ago | 19 comments

Show HN: Onramp Can Compile Doom (ludocode.com)
After two years of late nights and weekends, Onramp can finally compile Doom. Check it out:

Gaming, Compilers, Programming

79 points by ludocode 53 days ago | 24 comments

Show HN: Simple live calculator in Tree-sitter and cranelift JIT (github.com/jasonjmcghee)
A basic working example of tree-sitter + cranelift jit.

Programming, Compilers, Tools, Show HN

29 points by jasonjmcghee 56 days ago | 5 comments

Into CPS, Never to Return (bernsteinbear.com)
CPS, or continuation-passing style, is an intermediate representation for programs, particularly functional programs. It’s used in compilers for languages such as SML and Scheme.

Programming Languages, Functional Programming, Compilers

137 points by g0xA52A2A 57 days ago | 57 comments

Murder Mystery: GCC builds failing after sbuild refactoring (linux.it)
Official Debian GCC builds start failing on multiple architectures in late November.

Software, Linux, Debugging, Compilers, Open Source

141 points by pabs3 60 days ago | 66 comments

5 Years of CompilerJobs (mgaudet.ca)
Turns out I missed the 5 year anniversary of my CompilerJobs page by a little more than a week.

Anniversaries, Programming, Compilers

4 points by mgaudet 63 days ago | 0 comments

MoonBit compiler is available on GitHub (moonbitlang.com)
We’re excited to announce that the MoonBit compiler, complete with a Wasm backend, is now open source and available on GitHub!

Open Source, Programming Languages, Compilers, Wasm

43 points by frou_dh 64 days ago | 27 comments

Crunch – a Scheme compiler with a minimal runtime (more-magic.net)
Hi! This post is about a new project of mine, called "CRUNCH", a compiler for a statically typed subset of the programming language Scheme, specifically, the R7RS (small) standard.

Programming Languages, Scheme, Compilers

190 points by sjamaan 65 days ago | 71 comments

Why GCC 1.42 on the Tektronix 4404 – with a C compiler from 1979 (medium.com)
I came across a blog describing building an early version of the GNU C Compiler (gcc) using a modern compiler: (https://miyuki.github.io/2017/10/04/gcc-archaeology-1.html)

Programming, History, Compilers

36 points by todsacerdoti 67 days ago | 11 comments

Patches Posted for Review Adding COBOL Front End to GCC Compiler (phoronix.com)
The COBOL programming language may be 65 years old since its original release but the mainline GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) in 2025 might finally see upstream support for it.

Programming Languages, Compilers, Open Source, COBOL

6 points by rbanffy 69 days ago | 0 comments