Tech Links

README.md

Tech Links

See also my tech blog.

Compilers, Interpreters, Language Design, etc.

• /r/compilers
• /r/programminglanguages
• melling's list of links

Tutorials

• My lisp interpreter series
• "Writing a Lisp, the series"
  • Compiling a Lisp
• "Let's Build a Compiler" (Noah Zentzis) 1, 2, 3, 4
• "Developing Statically Typed Programming Language" (Minko Gechev)
• "A Simple Scheme Compiler" (from "An Introduction to Scheme and its Implementation")
• https://github.com/danistefanovic/build-your-own-x#build-your-own-programming-language
• http://dmitrysoshnikov.com/
• A "Tiny" Pascal Compilter, Part 1 (Byte, 1978)
  • A "Tiny" Pascal Compilter, Part 2 (Byte, 1978)
  • A "Tiny" Pascal Compilter, Part 3 (Byte, 1978)
• "Micro C" 1 2 3
• One-pass Compiler Primer (HN)
  • Compiling to Assembly from Scratch
• Let's make a Teeny Tiny compiler, part 1
  • github.com/AZHenley/teenytinycompiler
• Writing a lisp compiler from scratch in JavaScript: 1. lisp to assembly
• A Compiler Writing Journey
• "Nanopass" compilation
  • The Nanopass Framework as a Nanopass Compiler
  • Andy Keep - Writing a Nanopass Compiler
  • https://github.com/akeep/scheme-to-c
• So You Want to Be a (Compiler) Wizard
• An Overview of the PL.8 Compiler

Talks

• Compiler Confidential

Courses

• UMass Lowell, CS406 Compiler Construction, Spring 2019, Jay McCarthy
  • Essentials of Compilation: An Incremental Approach
• CSE 131: Compilers
• CS420: Compiler Design
• U. of Virginia, CS655, Spring 2001
• CSCI 485 Intro to Compilers
• The IU (Indiana University) Compilers course (Siek)
  • course website: Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022
  • book: Essentials of Compilation: An Incremental Approach racket, python
  • github
• CS 6120: Advanced Compilers: The Self-Guided Online Course

Books

• An Incremental Approach to Compiler Construction
• Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation
• "LLVM" (The Architecture of Open Source Applications)
• Writing a C Compiler
  • https://norasandler.com/

Simple interpreter codebases to study

• "Lisp in 99 lines of C" https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/tinylisp/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file
  • https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/lisp
  • https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/lisp-cheney
• "A micro-manual for LISP Implemented in C"
• "Lisp in Less Than 200 Lines of C"
• krig/LISP, HN
• matp/tiny-lisp
• uLisp: Implementation guide, uLisp-esp32
• esp-lisp: github, wiki, talk, talk
• femtolisp, in particular the tiny directory.
• PreScheme, manual
• elk scheme, github mirror
• MAL
• lis.py, lispy.py
• B1fipl
• Lispkit
• GNU Mes
• Scheme interpreter as mistletoe markdown renderer
• https://github.com/arkanis/lisp.c (bytecode VM)
  • https://github.com/arkanis/lisp.rb
• Kilo LISP
  • LISP9 (bytecode VM)
• rxi/aria
  • rxi/fe
• mattn/golisp
• sl3.c
  • sl5.c
• mini-scheme
  • demo
• uBasic
  • uBasic (golang)
• scheme.rs
• atmoslisp
• risp
• arret
• LYSP
• turtles (Apple II)

Discussion

• https://www.reddit.com/r/lisp/comments/hp5tld/advice_for_implementing_a_lisp_in_c/

Simple compiler codebases to study

• tcc
  • figure out why this is so much faster than other C compilers.
• lcc (github)
  • adapted for use in Quake 3
  • A Retargetable C Compiler
• 8cc
  • 8cc.go
• 9cc
  • (not to be confused with Ken Thompsons's 9-cc)
• chibicc
  • sigbus.info compiler book
• Small C Compilers
  • https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21210087
• ACK
• selfie
• Ur-Scheme (Scheme-to-x86-ASM)
• Marc Feeley's "90-minute Scheme-to-C compiler"
  • talk event, slides, video (part 1), video (part 2)
• Schism (Scheme to WASM)
  • talk
• ichbins (Lisp-to-C)
• B1fipl
• pcc
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_C_Compiler
  • https://github.com/IanHarvey/pcc
• Godbolt Compiler Explorer
• links: https://github.com/melling/ComputerLanguages/blob/master/compilers.md
• the super tiny compiler
• qeedquan/pl0
• SubC
  • SubC (golang)
• movfustacor
• https://github.com/akeep/scheme-to-c

Virtual machines

• SECD
• ZINC
• How to write a (toy) JVM
• 16-Bit Virtual Machine in JavaScript (playlist)
  • 16bitjs
  • vmfc
• Writing a register based VM in less than 125 lines of C code

"Bootstrapping"

• "bootstrapping" wiki
• "Programming thought experiment: stuck in a room with a PC without an OS"
• "Bootstrapping a simple compiler from nothing" (Edmund Grimley-Evans)

Reinventing Computing

• https://web.archive.org/web/20160304012557/http://vpri.org/html/work/ifnct.htm
• https://piumarta.com/software/cola/
  • "Building Your Own Dynamic Language" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn7kTPbW6QQ

Language Design

• Design Principles Behind Smalltalk
• Berkeley Programming Language Prelim Syllabus (1998)
  • "This syllabus gives an overview of the background expected for students planning to do PhD research in Programming Languages"

Optimization and JIT'ing

• LuaJIT and DynASM
  • bytecode
  • https://github.com/rochus-keller/LjTools
  • https://github.com/openresty/luajit2
  • https://github.com/iponweb/luavela
  • an Oberon implementation which uses LuaJIT
• Terra
• RaptorJIT
  • optimization resources
• GNU LibJIT
• LLVM On-Request Compilation (ORC)
• AsmJIT
• Mozilla Nanojit
  • https://github.com/dibyendumajumdar/nanojit
• Ask HN: JIT Compiler Landscape of 2019?
  • Julia as a platform for language development
• stoke
  • stochastic assembly optimizer
• DannyB2 on the JVM's C1 and C2
• vnmakarov/mir
  • "MIR: A lightweight JIT compiler project"
  • https://github.com/dibyendumajumdar/ravi
• libtcc
• SimpleJIT

Tutorials, etc

Yulia Startsev series on SpiderMonkey JIT: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

Garbage Collection

• https://github.com/mkirchner/gc
• http://maplant.com/gc.html
• https://github.com/orangeduck/tgc
• http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2013/12/08/babys-first-garbage-collector/
• DannyB2 on the JVM's ZGC and Shenandoah
  • https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/shenandoah/Main
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCeHkcwfF9Q
  • https://www.baeldung.com/jvm-zgc-garbage-collector
  • https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/zgc/Main
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_r3GE3zOo
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheney's_algorithm
• https://making.pusher.com/golangs-real-time-gc-in-theory-and-practice/
  • https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13086059
• https://www.well-typed.com/blog/2019/10/nonmoving-gc-merge/
• https://danluu.com/malloc-tutorial/

WASM

• https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/tree/master/cranelift
• https://www.fastly.com/blog/announcing-lucet-fastly-native-webassembly-compiler-runtime

Data structures

• https://github.com/jamesroutley/write-a-hash-table

Green Threads

• http://c9x.me/articles/gthreads/intro.html

Computer Architecture

• Padraic Edgington's videos
• Design of Digital Circuits, ETH Zurich, Onur Mutlu, Spring 2019
  • Basic CPU design course, LC-3, MIPS, FPGA, Vivado, Basys 3
• High Performance Computer Architecture, Georgia Tech CS6290
  • Pipelining, etc.
• Performance Engineering of Software Systems, MIT 6.172, Leiserson and Shun, Fall 2018
• computationalstructures.org (MIT 6.004)
• /r/computerarchitecture
• /r/comparch
• Microprocessor Design (wikibooks)

Simple / Educational Register-machines:

• LC-3 (and LC-3b (wayback), LC-4)
  • lcc-lc3
  • Writing a simple 16 bit VM in less than 125 lines of C
• DLX
• ZipCPU, projects, blog
  • ZBasic
• DCPU-16
  • https://github.com/fogleman/DCPU-16
  • https://github.com/nzentzis/dcpu
• SAP-1 (and SAP-2, SAP-3)
  • "Build an 8-bit computer from scratch" (Ben Eater)
  • "SAP-1(Simple as Possible-1) Computer Architecture Introduction" (Shirish Koirala)
• RiSC-16 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
  • from the community: 1
• ROSE-8
• CARDIAC, the cardboard CPU simulator
  • online simulator
  • manual
• NAR 2
• All of Dieter Mueller's articles
• KENBAK-1
• C74-6502
• The Gigatron
  • "Cloning a 6502 Apple-1 in just 930 logic gates", discussion
• The Scott CPU

Simple / Educational Stack-machines:

• J1 and J1a
  • https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11839943
• JOP

The cult of SUBLEQ

OISC: One Instruction Set Computers!

• https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/oisc/
  • online simulator
  • rosettacode.org subleq simulator solutions

74181-based CPU's

• 74181 demo (Java applet)
• Ken Shirriff on the 74181
• Apollo181
• Mega181

Relay Computers:

• Review of relay-based computers
• Clickety Clack's Relay computer build
• joesnotes' relay single-board-computer
  • http://relaysbc.sourceforge.net/index.html

Delay-line memory:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hOmPdxw0U
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9cUbYII5RY

CPU Emulation

• https://floooh.github.io/2019/12/13/cycle-stepped-6502.html

Operating Systems

• Xv6
• "Making a RISC-V Operating System using Rust" (Stephen Marz)
• multicians.org
• "Computer Science from the Bottom Up"
• RPi OS

Programming

From-scratch

• https://github.com/danistefanovic/build-your-own-x
• https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts has a great set of from-scratch screencasts (paid)

Practice

• rosettacode.org tasks
  • rosettagit.org
• adventofcode.com
• projecteuler.net

Lisp

• dundalek/awesome-lisp-languages
  • https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21625848
• "Learning Lisp"

Common Lisp vs Scheme vs Clojure

• https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~novak/schemevscl.html
• https://clojure.org/reference/lisps
• http://hyperpolyglot.org/lisp
• Ray Dillinger on Common Lisp vs Scheme http://community.schemewiki.org/?scheme-vs-common-lisp
• Truthiness, empty list and nil in Common Lisp vs Scheme: https://stackoverflow.com/a/42436563

Clojure

• razum2um/awesome-clojure
• mbuczko/awesome-clojure
• kana-sama/awesome-clojure
• libpython-clj
  • Calling Python from Clojure

Clojure and Clojure-like implementations:

• clojure
• clojurescript
• planck
• lumo
• joker
• clojure-clr
• clojure-py
• clojure-py-redux
• clojurescript-lua
• clojure-scheme
• gherkin
• flk
• babashka
• sci
• closh
• pixie
• clojerl

Scheme

See my Scheme notes.

Common Lisp

See my Common Lisp notes.

Rust

• https://fasterthanli.me/blog/2020/a-half-hour-to-learn-rust/
• "Learn Rust with Entirely Too Many Linked Lists"

Lisps implemented in Rust

• https://fitzgen.github.io/oxischeme/oxischeme/index.html
• https://users.rust-lang.org/t/solved-gc-in-rust-for-scheme-interpreter/25459/3
• https://boats.gitlab.io/blog/post/shifgrethor-i/
• https://github.com/isamert/scheme.rs
• https://github.com/kenpratt/rusty_scheme
• https://github.com/mgattozzi/schemers/tree/Input
  • https://blog.mgattozzi.dev/scheme-input/
  • https://blog.mgattozzi.dev/scheme-ex1/
  • https://blog.mgattozzi.dev/scheme-parser/
• https://blog.cloudflare.com/building-fast-interpreters-in-rust/

Golang

Standard library:

• https://golang.org/pkg/

Learning Golang:

• https://gobyexample.com/
• https://play.golang.org/
• https://quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests/
• https://milapneupane.com.np/2019/07/06/learning-golang-from-zero-to-hero/
• https://getstream.io/blog/go-1-11-rocket-tutorial/
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/golang-tutorial-learn-go-programming-language/
• https://github.com/melling/ComputerLanguages/blob/master/go.md
• golang github repos with > 100 stars
• http://golang-challenge.org/

Articles

• https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/09/24/profiling-go-with-pprof/
• https://sohlich.github.io/post/go_makefile/
  • https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15294929
• http://devs.cloudimmunity.com/gotchas-and-common-mistakes-in-go-golang/
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/anonymous-function-in-go-language/
• https://dave.cheney.net/2014/03/19/channel-axioms

C

• kozross/awesome-c
• aleksandar-todorovic/awesome-c
• uhub/awesome-c
• Bfgeshka/awesome-c
• C (cppreference.com)
• OpenBSD man pages
• "What is the difference between C, C99, ANSI C and GNU C?"
• "Some things every C programmer should know about C" (Peter Klausler)
• stb
• https://github.com/jeremycw/httpserver.h
• "Inside the C Standard Library"
  • "C Portability Lessons from Weird Machines"
• https://www.onlinegdb.com/ry6JnKZXI

Lua and LuaJIT

• http://wiki.luajit.org/Bytecode-2.0
  • http://wiki.luajit.org/NYI#libraries_base-library
• https://github.com/franko/luajit-lang-toolkit
• https://blog.cloudflare.com/luajit-hacking-getting-next-out-of-the-nyi-list/
• https://github.com/cloudflare/loom

SQL

• danhuss/awesome-sql
• csika/awesome-sql
• awesome-public-datasets
• google images q=julia+evans+sql
• joins poster
  • considered harmful
• https://github.com/RandyGaul/cute_headers
• https://github.com/jeremycw/httpserver.h

HTTP

• https://github.com/for-GET/http-decision-diagram

GUI programming

• https://eugenkiss.github.io/7guis/

X11:

• "Solutions to the tiny window manager challenge"

Golang:

• https://github.com/avelino/awesome-go#gui
• Qt: https://github.com/therecipe/qt
• GTK3: https://github.com/gotk3/gotk3
  • https://jamesrr39.github.io/talks/go-gtk-talk/Native_GTK+_apps_written_in_Go.html#4
• Win32: https://github.com/lxn/walk
• SDL2: https://github.com/veandco/go-sdl2
  • https://github.com/veandco/go-sdl2-examples
  • https://markkeeley.xyz/2016/go-sdl2-lesson-1/

SDL:

• https://github.com/timhutton/sdl-canvas-wasm

UI Design

• https://dev.to/perborgen/learn-basic-ui-design-in-5-minutes-1mlk

Awesome

• sindresorhus/awesome
• bayandin/awesome-awesomeness

Courses

• prakhar1989/awesome-courses

Blogs

• https://fasterthanli.me/blog/
• https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/
• http://blog.fogus.me/
• https://swannodette.github.io/ (inactive since 2016)