Writing a C compiler in 500 lines of Python
vgel.me · 5,740 words · saved by 1 readers
Blog about linguistics, programming, and my projects
Writing a C compiler in 500 lines of Python Posted August 30, 2023 A few months ago, I set myself the challenge of writing a C compiler in 500 lines of Python 1 , after writing my SDF donut post. How hard could it be? The answer was, pretty hard, even when dropping quite a few features. But it was also pretty interesting, and the result is surprisingly functional and not too hard to understand! There's too much code for me to comprehensively cover in a single blog post 2 , so I'll just give an overview of the decisions I made, things I had to cut, and the general architecture of the compiler,
saved by
related reading
- Build your own WebAssembly Compilerblog.scottlogic.com
- how I think when I think about programming - alice mazalicemaz.com
- How Compiler Explorer Works in 2025 — Matt Godbolt’s blogxania.org
- Compilers - What Every Programmer Should Know About Compiler Optimizations | Microsoft Learnlearn.microsoft.com
- Building a Performant Compiler from Scratch — Bowen Chengbowencheng.dev
- GitHub - emscripten-core/emscripten: Emscripten: An LLVM-to-WebAssembly Compilergithub.com
- A Mere Mortal's Guide to Webassemblyuptointerpretation.com
- A Gentle Introduction to LLVM IR · mcyoungmcyoung.xyz
- MSWasm: Soundly Enforcing Memory-Safe Execution of Unsafe Codecseweb.ucsd.edu
- A Map of the Territory · Crafting Interpreterscraftinginterpreters.com
- Modern Cinria.hal.science
- A Map of the Territory · Crafting Interpreterscraftinginterpreters.com