Host language section

[dragoncoder047]

For compilers, there should be a section of what the compiler outputs, be it machine code, Javascript, etc.

For interpreters, there should be a tag of what language the interpreter is itself written in, in case someone wants to embed it.

[ell1e]

I like this idea.

However, the output format question can be complicated. E.g. a compiler may in theory output C, but typically ship along with a C compiler and therefore in practice output a binary for the user. Would the listing reflect what the user will get as a final result, or rather what the compiler of that language is technically outputting to get there? I guess it could just describe this process in natural language, but in any case, it may not always boil down to a simple 1-2 words entry.

[dragoncoder047]

I wasn't suggesting that it would be a single field, the output language could be a list of things, and you could list both C and machine code in that case, and it would also cater towards polyglot compilers that can transpile their input lang to a number of different target languages.

For the host language of the compiler/interpreter itself, this probably should be a list too, in case a language has multiple reference implementations.

[ell1e]

So would it perhaps make sense to just allow arbitrary properties to be added for each language that can be displayed in some kind of details box?

Then it could be used for an output language field but people could just propose new fields in pull requests without any changes to the site code.

[dragoncoder047]

There ought to be some level of standardization either way, but yeah, having arbitrary fields and making them all searchable would be cool.