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by dmitripopov 2317 days ago
Somehow I still get those chills while reading source code of programming languages interpreters / compilers. I guess it's like getting to the origins of life, or something.
2 comments

It is. As a kid, I kind of understood programs, but I could not even imagine how an interpreter (or compiler) could work. I partly got a CS degree just so I could learn the answer.
Then this talk from David Beazley will blow your mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUT386_GKI8
For those of us short on time, can you summarize in a sentence or two?
From https://www.dabeaz.com/talks.html

Closing Keynote: A Talk Near the Future of Python

October 13, 2019 PyCon India, Chennai

A live-coded implementation of simple stack machine that's later turned into a WebAssembly interpreter capable of running a game written in Rust.

He builds a WebAssembly interpreter from scratch in Python and compiles a Rust program to run on it.
The twist is a bit of a surprise. Totally like the change in the movie parasite. It just suddenly from text to ...

Very good video.

Incredibly similar to my story. I did not even know how to program, but the mere idea of something that took code in and spit executables out was completely magic to me. I absolutely had to know how they worked.
(Abstract Syntax) Tree (Of Life)