Faq

Why did you do this?

There are several reasons:

• it is possible! (For me, this already is a sufficient explanation :))
• this compiler is very portable due to python being portable.
• writing a compiler is a very challenging task

Is this compiler slower than compilers written in C/C++?

Yes. Although a comparison is not yet done, this will be the case, due to the overhead and slower execution of python code.

Cool project, I want to contribute to this project, what can I do?

Great! Please see this page. If you are not sure where to begin, please contact me fist. For a list of tasks, refer to the todo page. For hints on development see the development page.

Why would one want to make a compiler for such a weird language such as C?

Because of the enormous amount of C-source code available. This serves as a great test suite for the compiler.

Why are the so many different parts in ppci, should you not better split this package into several smaller ones?

This would certainly be possible, but for now I would like to keep all code in a single package. This simplifies the dependencies, and also ensures that a single version works as a whole. Another benefit is that the packaging overhead is reduced. Also, functionality can be easily shared (but should not lead to spaghetti code of course).