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Compiler compiling itself

 
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Compiler compiling itself
WXY
4 Feb, 2008 - 06:54 PM
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This is just out of dumb curiosity

Let's say that a talented programmer with too much spare time on his hands has decided to and now successfully written a C++ compiler that implements all the C++ standards. In addition he also implements a balanced speed & size optimization algorithm which cannot be turned off.

Now this programmer compiles the compiler with a unnamed compiler thus producing an initial product. What if this programmer would repetitively feed the compiler's source code into the derived compilers like the following:
source code -> unnamed compiler = compiler 1
source code -> compiler 1 = compiler 2
source code -> compiler 2 = compiler 3
... so on

Would the machine code being generated converge or diverge? And would the result be any different if we've built the initial product with a different compiler?

This post has been edited by WXY: 4 Feb, 2008 - 06:54 PM
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Tom9729
RE: Compiler Compiling Itself
4 Feb, 2008 - 07:15 PM
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I don't think the compiler that compiled the source code for a compiler would have any effect on the code generated by the new compiler.

I think the machine code for compiler 1 would be "unique", but the machine code for 2, 3, ... would be the same.

Think: does your code do different things depending on the compiler you used? Each compiler has it's little quirks, but a Tic Tac Toe game compiled in GCC is still a Tic Tac Toe game if it's compiled in Visual Studio.
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Nayana
RE: Compiler Compiling Itself
4 Feb, 2008 - 07:43 PM
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No it's not going to get better, because the compiler will always be using the same algorithms to compile the same source code.
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