Exploring the c4 compiler

https://registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/exploring-the-c4-compiler

This week I found myself digging through the code of c4, an implementation of C “in four functions”, by Robert Swierczek.

I remember coming across c4 when it was released ten years ago. It got me excited: hey, C in four functions, that means it’s easy to understand right?

That excitement turned into “oh, I see” as soon as I scrolled through the code. c4 is dense, barely commented, and, frankly, strange. It’s unlike anything else I had come across in compiler land...

That’s not x86 assembly, right? I mean, some of it sounds like x86 — LEA, ADD — but then there’s PSH and LEV and PRTF. I’m pretty sure PRTF corresponds to our printf statement and PRTF is not an x86 statement.

Turns out it’s bytecode. This week I figured out that c4 is a bytecode compiler and virtual machine.