An Expert's Guide to Compilation Terms

Description

A simple text-based image on a white background with black text. It begins with a confident but misplaced introductory sentence: 'Oh yeah I know about compiling'. This is followed by a list of common compilation and linking tool names and file extensions from the C/C++ ecosystem, each given a humorous, made-up definition. The list includes 'gcc - good code compiler', 'clang - compiler language', 'ld - linker dude', 'lld - little linker dude', 'llvm - little linker virtual machine', '.o - surprised file', and '.a - screaming file'. The humor is derived from creating funny, personified 'backronyms' for highly technical terms. It's relatable to developers who have had to navigate the often-opaque world of compilers and linkers, and it playfully mocks the jargon-heavy nature of low-level programming

Common Tags

Compilers CompilingCode GCCCompilerCollection LLVMCompilerInfrastructure DeveloperHumor CodingHumor LowLevelProgramming BuildProcess

Comments

Anonymous ★ Top Pick I'm pretty sure 'ld' actually stands for 'lunch deferred,' because on our legacy C++ monolith, that's exactly what happens when you kick off a full build

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

I'm pretty sure 'ld' actually stands for 'lunch deferred,' because on our legacy C++ monolith, that's exactly what happens when you kick off a full build
Anonymous

Some days the only abstraction layer between .c and .o is the primal scream you let out while waiting for lld to finish your 4 GB static link
Anonymous

After 20 years of explaining to junior devs why their code won't link, I too believe object files are just surprised that they made it through compilation without segfaulting, and archive files are screaming because they contain decades of technical debt nobody wants to refactor
Anonymous

When your junior dev asks why the build is failing and you realize they've been pronouncing 'ld' as 'linker dude' this whole time - honestly, after 20 years of wrestling with undefined symbols and circular dependencies, that's probably the most accurate description of what it actually does. At least 'little linker virtual machine' explains why LLVM takes longer to compile than the heat death of the universe
Anonymous

Call it “linker dude” all you want - he still resolves left‑to‑right; pass the .a before the .o and you’ll get a genuine screaming file: undefined reference
Anonymous

Cute glossary, but the only thing that actually screams is your build when lld hits a stale .o and a mismatched ABI; ask ar, he wasn't invited
Anonymous

ld: linker dude - because after 20 years, unresolved symbols still hit like a bro ghosting the monorepo merge
@mrYakov 1y

pure facts, 146% true
Deleted Account 1y

.@ angry file
@Art3m_1502 1y

.exe - laughing file
@FGH378yufs 1y

.py - pooping file
1. @dp229 1y
  
  *russian file
  
  @Protomax 1y
  
  yandekc.ру
@mira_the_cat 1y

gross/garbage c compiler
1. Deleted Account 1y
  
  wtf did u just say about gcc..
  
  @azizhakberdiev 1y
  
  exactly what it means
  
  @endisn16h 1y
  
  c6(and others) > clang > gcc
2. Deleted Account 1y
  
  "g/gcc"💀💀🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿
Deleted Account 1y

gcc means GNU complier collection
1. @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 1y
  
  Gnu is kinda shitty tho
Deleted Account 1y

but before
Deleted Account 1y

it was called GNU C compiler
Deleted Account 1y

????
1. @endisn16h 1y
  
  gcc is obese and mid at best
Deleted Account 1y

gcc is da best :P
Deleted Account 1y

NAH
Deleted Account 1y

windows is
Deleted Account 1y

gnu is da best —.—
@LeakyRectifiedLinearUnit 1y

.s - asm/autism
@anim35h 1y

.js - just shit
1. Deleted Account 1y
  
  .json just sh!tting on numbers 💀💀🗿
@sylfn 1y

.h huge file .cc compiled code
@TheRamenDutchman 1y

I just want to share my mnemonic for tarballing files in the terminal: tar -czvf output.tar.gz file1 file2 folder1/ etc/ -c Compress -z Ze -v Vuckin -f File
@TheRamenDutchman 1y

Extracting files from one is similar, ofc tar -xzvf file.tar.gz eXtract ze vuckin file!
@ashit_axar 1y

I just wanna say that new languages syntax sucks. I can't use to them once i learned C.
1. @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  c family syntax (including rust and js for example) is the worst imo in terms of syntax haskell > lua > pascal > lisp > forth > c
  
  @ashit_axar 1y
  
  I mean why on earth someone should define type of the variable after the name? What's wrong with the people nowadays! 😶😶
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  do you do otherwise in math?
  
  @ashit_axar 1y
  
  In my mind, C and D makes sense. When i see other syntax, i wanna end myself 😕😕
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  guess what does a * b; mean without context 😄
  
  @x4erem6a 1y
  
  I mean why on earth someone should define types of variables manually? What's wrong with people who don't use type inference?
  
  @azizhakberdiev 1y
  
  Why on earth someone should define types? What's wrong with people who use python and js?
  
  @ashit_axar 1y
  
  When you work with small hardware, every byte is counted.
  
  @azizhakberdiev 1y
  
  Jokes on you. I was packing arrays bitwise, can you name a type that consists of 3 bits?
  
  @ashit_axar 1y
  
  In that case, 5 more bits to go 😂😂
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  range 0 .. 7 in ada or u3 in zig 😄
  
  @TheUnstupidOne 1y
  
  In my eyes the main issue with those is not even memory usage. Honestly speaking, memory is extremely cheap nowadays, relative to processing power, even in IoT-grade hardware. They're interpreted languages, which means there's a HUGE processing overhead that comes from JIT. And it has long become so bad that not even the execution time, but the slowness is human-perceptable, which is fucking insane. And also everything tries to be embedded chromium nowadays, which means insane waste of resources on unnecessary junk. And it doesn't even look or work that good comparatively
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  dynamically typed languages are only ok for prototyping since errors then aren't that much of a problem
  
  @TheUnstupidOne 1y
  
  i honestly wish even for excel macros to be compiled
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  interpreted languages can be statically type checked, and compiled languages can be dynamically typed
  
  @ashit_axar 1y
  
  I do microcontroller programming. I wanna make sure everything as expected.
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  type inference is for "do thing ASAP then don't touch the it" kind of languages sadly, many languages are like this instead of encouraging clean and well-thought-of code
  
  @x4erem6a 1y
  
  I don't see how type inference discourages clean code. It encourages thinking about actual solution to a problem instead of thinking about how to explain this solution to the compiler.
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  types are part of the solution
  
  @SamsonovAnton 1y
  
  In BASIC (the best language in terms of syntax, which has not been surpassed since its inception), type distinction was added by later dialects: DIM A AS INTEGER DIM B(4, 2) AS DOUBLE In earlier dialects, all variables were numeric (floating-point), unless suffixed with an "$" to designate a string: DIM B(4, 2) DIM C$(64)
  
  @TheUnstupidOne 1y
  
  Basic is so disgustingly and unapologetically verbose it's not even funny Also idk about you, but there's something in the sytax of C-derivatives (esp. C#) that makes them seem technical yet understandable and natural at the same time
  
  @ashit_axar 1y
  
  Pascal? Seriously?! 😑😑
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  ada is way better than rust in everything, including syntax
  
  @ashit_axar 1y
  
  I just googled the Ada syntax. Oh god save me 😵‍💫😵‍💫
  
  @echedelle 1y
  
  you like pascal family?
  
  @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  yes
  
  @echedelle 1y
  
  :3
  
  @purplesyringa 1y
  
  The hardest thing about Haskell to me is its damn whitespace sensitivity
@mira_the_cat 1y

it may differ in some details, but mostly the same what else syntax family could it be in?
@mira_the_cat 1y

it have sets and there is type theory
@mira_the_cat 1y

x of Integer
@x4erem6a 1y

In English we say "let x be an integer"
@mira_the_cat 1y

bias from programming in c
@x4erem6a 1y

Modern IDEs can insert inferred type annotations for readability if you really need them
1. @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  it encourages doing without thinking and you may need to read the code outside IDE or whatever
@SamsonovAnton 1y

.4th — Star Wars in ASCII art .bat — call Batman .cc — closed captions .css — Counter-Strike source .cxx — programming porn .f77 — decimal number 3959 .for — one giant for loop .es — Spanish script .gnu — Stallman-compatible license .html — human-teached machine learning .lsp — least significant program .m4 — hitman"s wishlist .man — Y-chromosome supremacy declaration .omgrofl — literally it .php — PyrrolidinoHexioPhenone drug .ps — PlayStation game .rb — red-black tree .s — secret (chmod 000) .sh — secret header
@mira_the_cat 1y

tagged unions 🤷‍♀️
@mira_the_cat 1y

there are scheme to c compilers for example
1. @mira_the_cat 1y
  
  scheme is dynamically typed
@mira_the_cat 1y

o weka e ni
@andrei_nik_kolesnikov 1y

elixir is a very ok language, for instance "let it crash" as a way of dealing with errors in runtime is arguably more succinct than placing types everywhere in compile time
1. @andrei_nik_kolesnikov 1y
  
  also there is an argument to be made about completeness of static checks, maybe a Rice theorem as well

Use J and K for navigation

An Expert's Guide to Compilation Terms

Description

Categories

Common Tags

Comments

More like this

Are Ya Winning at Systems Research, Son?

Any Sophomore Can Handle This Compiler Algebra

Outnerded by a 12-Year-Old: Dad Is 'Source Code', Mom Is 'Data Compiler'