IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Kefir C17/C23 Compiler

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1️⃣ Appreciation for More Compiler Implementations

“I think it is fantastic to have more compiler implementations… It was probably also a fun project to code.” — vzaliva

2️⃣ Drive for an Independent, Transparent C Compiler

“The purpose of Kefir project is producing an independent C17/C23 compiler with well‑rounded architecture and well‑defined scope that is feasible for implementation by a single developer.” — LeFantome
“I think they provide enough information… the author is the type of programmer who prefers to understand what their code is doing, with as little magic involved as possible.” — applfanboysbgon

3️⃣ Practical Concerns: Portability, Testing & Drop‑In Usability > “I have found portability bugs in many projects with slimcc just because it exposed different preprocessor defines…” — fuhsnn

“Can’t speak for kefir; slimcc has been make unittesting Neovim v0.10.4 with no source modification in a Debian VM (so it’s pretty portable, thanks!)” — fuhsnn

These three themes capture the community’s overall reaction: enthusiasm for another C compiler, clear motivations around independence and transparency, and concrete issues around portability, testing, and ease of adoption.

🚀 Project Ideas

KefirDrop

Summary

  • Provides a drop‑in, standards‑compliant C17/C23 compiler that outputs parsed AST, IR, and token streams as machine‑readable JSON.
  • Enables developers to verify code portability and understand transformations without “magic” from GCC/Clang.

Details| Key | Value |

|-----|-------| | Target Audience | Systems programmers, language tooling hobbyists, CI maintainers | | Core Feature | JSON export of tokens, AST, and IR plus conventional binary output | | Tech Stack | Rust (for safety), LLVM‑lite backend (optional), Serde for JSON, Cargo | | Difficulty | Medium | | Monetization | Revenue-ready: SaaS CI integration tier |

Notes

  • HN commenters repeatedly asked for motivation and “how is this different?” – KefirDrop answers directly with transparent JSON dumps.
  • Quote from fuhsnn: “I wish I had an excuse to use it” → provides that excuse via JSON output.

PortCraft

Summary

  • A hosted Continuous Integration service focused on compiling and testing C code with multiple independent compilers (kefir, slimcc, tcc, etc.) to surface portability bugs.
  • Generates detailed reports on preprocessor edge cases, attribute handling, and ABI compliance.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Open‑source maintainers, library authors, language researchers
Core Feature Multi‑compiler test matrix with JSON summaries of failures and warnings
Tech Stack Docker + GitHub Actions runners, Python backend, PostgreSQL for results, Grafana for dashboards
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Pay‑as‑you‑go compute credits

Notes

  • Discussions about “tcc got removed for maintenance burden” and “need to catch hidden bugs” show appetite for a dedicated test platform; PortCraft fills that gap.

CPlayground

Summary

  • An interactive web playground that lets users write C code and instantly compile it with several independent compilers (kefir, slimcc, tcc, etc.), view JSON‑formatted AST/IR, and compare error/warning reports.
  • Includes built‑in test‑suite validators and explanations of quirks to help newcomers grasp low‑level details.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Students, hobbyist programmers, educators, language designers
Core Feature Real‑time multi‑compiler execution with side‑by‑side JSON output and explanatory tooltips
Tech Stack TypeScript + React, WebAssembly for sandboxed compilation, Go microservice hosting compilers via Docker, Tailwind CSS
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Users like “What would I do with internal representations in JSON?” – CPlayground provides the “excuse” by visualizing them.
  • Community feedback asks for “motivation and roadmap” – the site displays author goals directly from the project pages.

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