Internals of GCC

The podcast was interesting, I think I’ve not used the gcc until I started my career, but I remember when I was younger, sometimes I watched my uncle (who also studied computer systems engineer) use it (I didn’t know what it was) and it was something incredible for me. Don’t misunderstand me, I used to think that it was something very complex and it scared me, because as a child all what I used to do with a computer involved a GUI. Nowadays I don’t know all about it, and who can? But its interesting to know about it, because it makes me feel that this can help us to get a little bit closer to the “heart” of a computer and what makes it works as we know. 

The podcast talks about the three parts of compilers, the front, middle and back. Each layer works for its own and is isolated from their neighbors, but they can communicate between them in order to make possible the compilation process. Also, the podcast explains why this process is important to give the programs the “ability” to be portable and don’t be constrained by the hardware. This, as we know, to allow developers produce software without being worried about the compatibility of their product with other architectures (in most cases)

Finally, the podcast remarks that maybe we don’t need to know how a compiler works, and that’s something that we have listened before (as at the title of the previous article that we readed “Making Compiler Design important …”). I think this is true, in most of the cases we really didn’t need to know how is the compiler designed or how it works “inside”, but as the previous article mentioned, maybe we can found something interesting and useful for other problems that we may face. Its something as the mechanic engineers knowing how works a fuel engine, but no how it’s designed and how they can make one.