Talk:Bootstrapping (compilers)

what iscompiler?

we the people living in this world use a language to communicate with each other and we use formal language like english. but the computer are electronics machine which understand the machine language in the form or 0 and 1 only. if we have to input some data or program ,that has to be converted in machine language, so a compiler(a program) was written to convert high level language into low level language.

Nope, you've just described the purpose of programming languages (as opposed to raw instructions. --Kjoonlee 16:59, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

succinct statement of bootstrapping (compiler)

Recently I (Robert Maas) composed and posted this text on a newsgroup, and Pascal J. Bourguignon approved of it, so I'm thinking this text is succinct enough to appear in this article:

The point of bootstrapping (a compiler) is to provide a non-circular entry point into what would otherwise be a circular definition (a "chicken-egg" conundrum). At the entry point to the fixed-loop, there are two ways to reach that point, one of which is to enter via the bootstrap path, which typically comes from an earlier fixed-loop defined by an earlier version (of the compiler), and the other way to reach that point is to go once around the fixed-loop from itself. Without the bootstrap entry point to that fixed-loop, there's no way to ever have the fixed-loop in the first place.

Somebody expert at WikiPedia want to edit it in somewhere? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.144.192.42 (talk) 11:58, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Relevant Resources

• Bootstrapping a simple compiler from nothing —Preceding unsigned comment added by Parallelized (talk • contribs) 09:36, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Why bootstrap?

Why bootstrap? What is to be gained by writing a compiler for a language in its own language? (I found some ideas here but no reliable source).

• By using a tool, you demonstrate the usefulness of the tool.
• developers working on the compiler would only need to know the language being compiled. Otherwise developers would need to know the language being compiled as well as the language the compiler is written in.
• it lets you customize and extend the language without dropping into the base language.

pgr94 (talk) 18:21, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Found a source: Patrick D. Terry 2007 pgr94 (talk) 20:25, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Bootstrap once

The page is very light on if bootstrapping is supposed to be something you do once(and then e.g. crosscompile), or if you keep it around to bootstrap every version. 88.159.64.210 (talk) 13:23, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

When to bootstrap?

When to bootstrap? (I found some ideas here but no reliable source).

• If the language being written offers utilities that are not found in the "base" language of the compiler, and the language's features are relatively well-suited for a compiler, then bootstrap. Examples for bootstrapping:C++ Examples not to bootstrap: R, MatLab, SQL

pgr94 (talk) 18:21, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Is Clojure Self-Hosting?

Clojure is listed as an example of a self-hosting language in the introduction. As far as I know, Clojure is not yet self-hosting. The Clojure-in-Clojure project aims to change this, but I believe that, at the moment, Clojure uses Java as a host (not the JVM, but the Java language). I am going to change this unless someone cite's a resource stating that Clojure is self-hosting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dbmikus (talk • contribs) 04:58, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Wirth and Pascal

IIRC Wirth did a first attempt to a pascal compiler in Fortran. It was never published afaik, and the wellknown seventies Pascal compilers bootstrap from a CDC macro assembler:

From [1] :

"In 1969, a bootstrap compiler using Fortran as the implementation language was completed. Although the compiler was written in Fortran, the idea was to rewrite the compiler in Pascal itself, and so bootstrap the compiler. Wirth called that project unsuccessful, and instead, a Pascal compiler was written in a subset of the full Pascal language and translated by hand to a language called SCALLOP on the CDC 6000 computer, and thus bootstrapped." 88.159.64.210 (talk) 13:23, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Chicken-and-Egg Problem section is confusing as presented

I find the "Chicken-and-Egg Problem" section to be confusing. The enumerated list of "different" ways to solve the problem are mostly really the same thing -- that the initial compiler must be written in some other language. The content of the section is really more like a list of examples of the specific solutions employed by various well-known languages. Maybe the section should be re-formatted to present itself as such, rather than as a list of general solutions to the problem. 99.255.254.57 (talk) 15:42, 7 December 2014 (UTC)Nick Perkins

I agree. It's not as clear as it should be that the fundamental solution is building a compiler in another language.

Please nobody delete the reference to Knuth. Mgb314 (talk) 10:41, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

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At least some material should be moved to self-hosting article

The list List of languages having self-hosting compilers should be moved to Self-hosting_(compilers). Bootstrapping is about the initial process of creating such compilers. There is a list of such compilers in that article that is weaker than the list here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timothyclethbridge (talk • contribs) 14:30, 15 August 2019 (UTC)

Add an example of mentioned project for gcc

https://stackoverflow.com/a/65708958 2A00:1FA0:6DC:72AB:ECA7:98CD:74D3:86CF (talk) 16:15, 24 November 2021 (UTC)