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Comment by boris | Hacker News Reader

We do a compiler in C++. Probably as far from Web 2.0 as you can get (in this industry).

cool. but how will you make money from it? not saying one shouldnt write C++ compilers just wondering how you will make a business out of it.

you make it oodles better than any other c++ compiler out there????

Let me guess (or pray) - they've fixed the STL compiler error message headache - if true I know many ppl who would line up to pay for such a product. Even with the intel compiler and STLport the error messages are the biggest PITA.

biggest PITA = startup opportunity

(Often true, but not necessarily)

People will pay alot of money for a good compiler.

cool didnt know. but i guess especially companies dont mind paying for good programmingenvironments.

Why would they pay when there are perfectly good compilers already available for free, such as GCC?

There are a million reasons but let me give you a simple one: if it can produce faster code.

Giving 10% performance improvement in some fields (games?) is worth a metric buttload of money.

3% in games would be worth a metric buttload of money, where the difference in 'playable on N Ghz CPU' and 'playable on N - 0.2 Ghz CPU' could double your potential buyers.

It is not a C++ compiler, it is a compiler written in C++. It compiles XML Schema to C++ but other target languages are in the works.

As for who would pay for this, manually parsing any substantial XML vocabulary using DOM or SAX is a major PITA so there are always people willing to pay for automating this task.

nice, how big is such a project in terms of time and people?

It's been a little over three years now however I had some relevant background in the problem area from my previous job. Right now 2 people (founders) are working on it though we are planning to hire some more soon (if you are a C++ hacker in Cape Town and looking for interesting work, drop me a line).

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