title: Starting off a simple (the simplest perhaps) C compiler?
body: <p>I came across this: <a href="http://compilers.iecc.com/crenshaw/" rel="noreferrer">Writing a compiler using Turbo Pascal</a></p>
  
  <p>I am curious if there are any tutorials or references explaining how to go about creating a simple C compiler. I mean, it is enough if it gets me to the level of making it understand arithmetic operations. I became really curious after reading this article by <a href="http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html" rel="noreferrer">Ken Thompson</a>. The idea of writing something that understands itself seems exciting. </p>
  
  <p>Why did I put up this question instead of asking Google? I tried Google and the Pascal one was the first link. The rest did no seem relevant and added to that... I am not a CS major (so I still need to learn what all those tools like yacc do) and I want to learn this by doing and am hoping people with more experience are always better at these things than Google. I want to read some article written in the same spirit as the one I listed above but that which highlights at least the bootstrapping phases of building a simple C compiler.</p>
  
  <p>Also, I don't know the best way to learn. Do I start off building a C compiler in C or some other language? Do I write a C compiler or some other language? I feel questions like this are better answered once I have some direction to explore. Any suggestions?</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions?</p>