Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to My C compiler compiled itself

One of the most challenging projects of my life :)

My C Compiler Compiled Itself is a personal programming project where the creator successfully built a C compiler capable of compiling its own source code. This represents a significant technical milestone in compiler… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. My C compiler compiled itself launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1
My own C compiler (just for fun)▲175
rcor C compiler (under development). Contribute to rcorcs/rcc development by creating an account on GitHub.
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
2
Self Hosting C Compiler▲5
This is my hobby C compiler project. Decided to publish the code today, as it finally compiled itself. The readme on the linked GitHub page has a bit of information on how it works. I wrote the thing for fun, but if anyone gets a better understanding of the dark corners of C because of it, I am happy.
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
3
A work-in-progress C compiler from scratch▲159
Programming language that compiles into a x86 ELF executable. - riicchhaarrd/ocean
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
4
myCompiler▲122
Run your favourite programming languages online
2019 · mycompiler.io · its alternatives →
5
How to write a tiny compiler▲224
Write your own compiler: introduction. Code genetation. AST. Abstract syntax tree. lisp. javascript.
2017 · blog.klipse.tech · its alternatives →
6
ShivyC – Hobby C compiler created in Python▲120
C compiler created in Python. Contribute to ShivamSarodia/ShivyC development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
7
Simple virtual machine, assembler, and C compiler▲99
simple virtual machine and assembler. Contribute to ronsoros/rvm development by creating an account on GitHub.
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
8
C-compiler to compile TCC for live-bootstrap▲67
Investigation into replacing the MES compiler. Contribute to FransFaase/MES-replacement development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
9GI
Going into freshman year, figured I should build an interpreter▲138
Hi all! I'm going into my freshman year, and figured that the best way to prepare for the intro to programming Racket course would be to implement my own garbage-collected, dynamically typed, functional programming language in C ;) Anyways... here's the repo: https://github.com/liam-ilan/crumb I started learning C over the summer, so I still have a whole lot to learn... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! :D
2023 · its alternatives →
10
A simple way to write standalone C programs for i386▲147
A simple way to write standalone C programs for i386 - luke8086/boot2c
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
11
How to compile C/C++ for WASM, pure Clang, no libs, no framework▲217
A little help for programmers, who wants to run C/C++ code in the browser. (This is my second attempt to show it, first time I got banned bcoz of my personal page domain, I don't really understand it why is is suspicious.)
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
12
Fork, a toy self-hosting language and compiler that compiles to C▲58
A simple, self hosted, low level programming language. - mcilloni/fork
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
13
Compiling C in the browser using WebAssembly▲174
We’ve reached a major milestone in making any software run with WebAssembly. Thanks to the newest release of Wasmer (4.4) and the Wasmer JS SDK (0.8.0) ...
2024 · wasmer.io · its alternatives →
14
A self-hosted js compiler in 1k loc▲47
Minimal self-hosted JavaScript compiler in 1k lines of code - maierfelix/mini-js
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
15
Xcc700: Self-hosting mini C compiler for ESP32 (Xtensa) in 700 lines▲154
Repo: https://github.com/valdanylchuk/xcc700 Hi Everyone! I just wrote my first compiler! - single pass, recursive descent, direct emission - generates REL ELF binaries, runnable using ESP-IDF elf_loader - very basic features only, just enough for self-hosting - treats the Xtensa CPU as a stack machine for simplicity, no register allocation / window usage - compilable on Mac, probably also Linux, can cross-compile for esp32 there - wrote for fun / cyberdeck project Sample output from esp32: xcc700.elf xcc700.c -o /d/cc.elf [ xcc700 ] BUILD COMPLETED >…
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
16
I built a web framework in C▲420
a lightweight web framework in c. Contribute to ashtonjamesd/lavandula development by creating an account on GitHub.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
17
Compile C to Not Gates▲145
Hi! I've been working on the flipjump project, a programming language with 1 opcode: flip (invert) a bit, then jump (unconditionally). So a bit-flip followed by more bit-flips. It's effectively a bunch of NOT gates. This language, as poor as it sounds, is RICH. Today I completed my compiler from C to FlipJump. It takes C files, and compiles them into flipjump. I finished testing it all today, and it works! My key interest in this project is to stretch what we know of computing and to prove that anything can be done even with minimal power. I appreciate you reading my announcement, and be…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
18
Compile Ruby to C▲153
Compile ruby functions to C. Contribute to agrafix/rubyspeed development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
19
A compiler for a small language into x86-64 assembly▲74
Compiler for a small language into x86-64 Assembly - MauriceGit/compiler
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
20
I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++▲177
I love C and C++, but setting up projects can sometimes be a pain. Every time I wanted to start something new I'd spend the first hour writing CMakeLists.txt, figuring out find_package, copying boilerplate from my last project, and googling why my library isn't linking. By the time the project was actually set up I'd lost all momentum. So, I built Craft - a lightweight build and workflow tool for C and C++. Instead of writing CMake, your project configuration goes in a simple craft.toml: [project] name = "my_app" version = "0.1.0" language = "c" c_standard = 99 [build] type = "executable"…
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
21IB
I built a minimal Forth-like stack interpreter library in C▲47
This weekend I created stacklib.h - a single-header library that brings Forth-style stack operations to C. It implements a basic interpreter with: - Stack operations (push/pop/dup/swap/over/drop) - Arithmetic (+, -, *, /) - Output (., emit, cr) - Stack inspection (.s, depth) Example usage: Stack s; stack_init(&s); dict_init(); exec(&s, "10 20 + ."); // Prints "30" exec(&s, "1 2 3 4 .s"); // Shows stack contents The library is self-contained, requires no dependencies, and handles basic error checking. It was inspired by wanting to understand…
2025 · its alternatives →
22
50 days study C compiler▲15
subset c compiler. Contribute to truongpt/meo development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
23CI
C Injection Compiler – Program your text files in C▲15
It's very early in development but it has just reached a working state so I'm actually using it now to generate content for my website. The idea is that it should be useful both for generating static files and for generating responses live in a server, which it should be able to do very fast since it all compiles to C code and one memory mapped file.
2022 · git.sr.ht · its alternatives →
24
C3 – A C alternative that looks like C▲120
Compiler for the C3 language. Contribute to c3lang/c3c development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

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