Re: Java compiler courses

For one thing, to continue the tradition. Many compilers have been written
in the same language as they are compiling (e.g. javac). If you are
bootstrapping a compiler, it's always good to have your own killer test
application, which is the compiler itself.


Pascal compilers were all written in Pascal. Most C++ compilers are written
in C++. They may have originally started off as a small compiler written in
some other language, but as soon as this compiler became sufficiently
useful, it was used to bootstrap the self-hosted compiler, and was never
used again. Why should Java be any different? I was involved in an
ahead-of-time Java compiler project several years ago, and we deliberately
chose to write it in Java.


-AndyJ


"wooks" <wookiz@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:07-04-074@comp.compilers...
> Why do they exist.
>
> Why would anybody want to teach a compiler course in Java when it
> seems that there are more and better resources (books, tools)
> supporting a compilers course based on C (aside from the obvious -
> students are taught Java and not C).
>
> Why would anybody want to write a compiler in Java (unless it's the
> only language they know).
>

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