is there a simple compiler for a small language

Question

I am looking for a simple compiler that compiles a simple language, I need it to write a paper about it and to learn how compilers work, I am not looking for a sophisticated thi

Answer 1

The smallest practical compiler I know is MetaII, which has a 40 line self-description and can compile itself, using a special runtime system which admittedly hides some interesting computation (but then, most of the compilers listed here assume some kind of runtime system, surely bigger than the one for MetaII. I've build real compilers starting with this as a foundation, although meta-self-enhanced rather spectacularly.

There's been work to make that even smaller. I don't think there are any practical compilers based on this direction.

These are worth writing a paper about.