Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: rtrigg@netcom.com (Roger Trigg)
Subject: Re: C++ / Smalltalk
Message-ID: <rtriggD2451x.2u9@netcom.com>
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References: <3cl83v$jmq@news1.delphi.com> <1995Jan5.094541.16980@wavehh.hanse.de> <knight.789350186@tina.mrco.carleton.ca> <rtriggD1zCsD.92M@netcom.com> <knight.789506996@tina.mrco.carleton.ca>
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 00:51:33 GMT
Lines: 22

Alan Knight (knight@mrco.carleton.ca) wrote:
: In <rtriggD1zCsD.92M@netcom.com> rtrigg@netcom.com (Roger Trigg) writes:

: >I don't necessarily disagree with your point, but unless someone has
: >rewritten it, the Enfin compiler is written in C using yacc.

: OK, I didn't know that. Repharse that to "almost all the Smalltalk
: compilers I know about". I wonder why they chose to do it that way?

Well, there were several reasons, but a few of the major ones were:

1. I knew yacc and C
2. There didn't appear to be any compiler development tools for Smalltalk
3. I didn't want to write the compiler by hand (without yacc or equivalent)
4. It looked difficult to write a compiler in a language I didn't have a 
   compiler (or interpreter) for. (This is because we weren't originally 
   trying to make Smalltalk, just something similar).

         
         Regards,
         Roger Trigg (rtrigg@netcom.com)

