Ask most people what a compiler does, and you’ll get an answer about translating high-level code into machine instructions. Ask them why a compiler exists, and you’ll likely hear something about performance—getting code to run fast. This answer, while not entirely wrong, misses the forest for the trees. The real purpose of a compiler is far more interesting, and understanding it changes how you…
I’ve spent the past week building a project from scratch using agentic coding tools—a few hours a day across Claude Code, Codex CLI, Google Gemini/Antigravity, and Cursor.
“Compiler Engineering in Practice” is a blog series intended to pass on wisdom that seemingly every seasoned compiler developer knows, but is not systematically written down in any textbook or online resource. Some (but not much) prior experience with compilers is needed.