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Comment by bmh100 | Hacker News Reader

I mean this earnestly (no snark): why should I care about T3X? I know that I'm missing the obvious reasons.

As bootload said, it's a learning tool.

You can also use it to bootstrap something more high-level than assembly language in very little time.

I have even written real-life programs in T3X for a while, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are fascinated by the beauty of typeless languages!

What could it teach? Compiler design? Imperative language design? By "bootstrapping", are you referring to building a higher-level language that compiles to T3X?

It can teach the most fundamental basics of procedural language design and compiler construction: how to implement selection, loops, and functions/procedures as well as scanning, parsing, and code generation.

By bootstrapping, I'm referring to building a T3X9 compiler for a new target platform and than using that to create something more interesting. You can start the process by re-implementing the compiler or by re-targeting it.

Would studying it be helpful if I wanted to create a static analysis application on top of an existing procedural language?

Static analysis involves things like partial evaluation, dataflow analysis, and type inference. None of this is covered in the T3X book.

Thank you. I really appreciate the information.

"why should I care about T3X?"

If you look at the source code, you might learn something.

What topics would the T3X source be well suited to teach?

That can be said about a lot of code bases.

"can be said about a lot of code bases."

True, the poster asked specifically about T3X.

I mean this earnestly (no snark): what could it have been instead of T3X that would make you care?

Something related to functional programming, databases, data analysis, dev methodology, or system architecture. I use a procedural language in my job, but this doesn't seem relevant to it. My degree isn't in CS, if that helps.

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