Troll?

[hyuga]

Please let this be a troll? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/355439b8fca5b1f6?hl=en

Sample:
So I was suspecting the Python compiler or interpreter is written in a

Comments

[richterca]

Wait, I'm confused.

The Python complier is written in C? Ok. Odd, but ok. You'd think they'd write it in machine language, or something, like the C compiler is written in, but whatever.

But what bearing does that have on anything? You can still write Python code without knowing C, correct? Why should this even matter?

[hyuga]

Why would it be written in machine language? For that matter, why would the C compiler be written in machine language either? gcc is written in C....

Also, CPython is just the reference implementation. There's as PyPy (written in Python), Jython (Java), and IronPython (C#).

[loopers]

I've never even heard of a compiler written in machine language. I doubt any serious compiler has been in decades, actually. I think the vast majority of compilers are written in C/C++. There's also a long tradition of writing a compiler in the same language it compiles to (Mono's C# compiler is written in C#, for example).

Machine language is probably the least suitable language for writing a compiler, actually, simply because the complexity of the task implies high-level functionality. In fact, the front-end of a compiler is often not even written in a general-purpose programming language, but automatically generated by lexer and parser generators (lex/yacc).

I took a compilers class a little over a year ago, and we wrote a compiler in SML using ml-lex and ml-yacc. That was an adventure.

I don't think this post is a troll, though. I think it's just an incredibly clueless person.

[spate]

I'm a little appalled that people don't have more respect for good 'ol C.