[Mono-list] how to compile itself

[Bob Smith]

There is somewhat of a chicken and the egg problem with it. Once you have
a compiled version of mcs, you can use mcs to compile mcs. We used
microsoft's c# compiler to compile the origional binary. Now you can use
any mcs binary to make new ones.

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, Kozlovsky, Oleg wrote:

> Hello guys!
>
> I read on your site that
> "MCS was able to parse itself on April 2001, MCS compiled itself for the
> first time on December 28 2001. MCS became self hosting on January 3rd,
> 2002.
> "
> Forgive me please my ignorance but I just can't comprehend how bunch of
> programming code (which is text) can compile itself? As far as I understand
> one needs to have executable which is collection of pointers and op codes (
> primitively saying) to at least be run by operation system. But how text
> files can bootstrap themselves and turn themselves into executable code I
> cannot understand. Could you explain this to me please. Is there anything
> that I can read about it?
>
> Thank you very much
> Take Care
>
> Olegh
>
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