[kami8845]

>computers are magical black boxes, the sum of millions of hours of intense academic research

Isn't that awesome? I can use the thing without ever understanding what it does :) I'm so glad my car works without me ever having to know anything about how it works. I know it requires some form of money (gas) to work. That's it. Money in -> Transport out. Perfect.

The linked post never proclaimed no one "will ever understand" compilers. That's just what you're reading into it. You try to get upset at it, so you do. It merely proclaims that compilers are incredibly complex, which is the nice thing about them. If compilers were stupid they'd be a lot less useful.

[endlessvoid94]

He's just saying the answer makes compilers sound intimidating.

[Marazan]

Compilers are intimidating.

I mean, the basics of parsing and lexing are easy enough to understand & do and forming an AST is straightforward but all the "clever stuff" adfer that, all the hundreds and thousands of optimisation tests that are done - they are mind boggling.

Each one by itself is pretty straightfoward but start adding them up and layering them on top of each other and it gets crazy pretty quick.