/prague/ Q&A

Ask /prog/ anything.

Although don't expect an answer or even a good one.

Also, keep it /prog/ related.

I'm a little buzzed up and I don't know exactly how to word this question right. But a new compiler has to be written in older compilers, obviously. Do they become increasingly more inefficient? Can all current compilers be traced back to few initial compilers?

If I compiled the source code of a compiler with a given compiler, then used the new compiler to compiler the original source, and kept doing this, would it become increasingly more inefficient?

What's a good book for studying compiler design?