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The beginnings of a C compiler

Date: 2021-10-10

I've just recently had this idea. I've seen an post on Twitter for a programming competition right for my age group, and I decided I want to join, but I had no idea what I wanted to do for it. After a few days of thinking however, I came up with an idea: I'll write my very own C compiler.

Of course, this is a pretty big project, so I set up the following rules for myself:

In the beginning at least, only implement ANSI C89 and no more
Don't try to generate machine code directly. Use assembly if there's enough time, if there isn't, use some code generator like QBE
For the time being, only compile to Linux x86 (or AMD64, I'm not sure yet, actually), or in general only for a single architecture

I've also set out to achieve the following things:

A working ANSI C compiler that can compile itself (which means the compiler also has to be written in pure ANSI C)
A compiler that does not depend on anything but the ANSI C standard library, i.e. not even POSIX libraries

With these goals in mind, I'm starting the project. Wish me luck!