rust-lang
[Draft] Rework the "Overview of the Compiler" chapter
Context: https://github.com/rust-lang/rustc-dev-guide/issues/674
Reworking the "Overview of the Compiler" chapter
I've noticed that the current Overview chapter seems to have several issues that make it difficult for new contributors to understand the compiler's structure and architecture at a high-level:
- Mixed detail levels.
- Some areas are very briefly mentioned or omitted.
- Still very hard to actually get a reasonably full high-level picture of the compiler.
See also discussion during a rustc-dev-guide reading club session (cf. https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/196385-t-compiler.2Fwg-rustc-dev-guide/topic/.5Breading.20club.5D.202023.2E02.2E26.20chapters.2022.20to.2030/near/423423778).
This PR aims to rework the Overview of the Compiler chapter to make it more friendly for new contributors and be more comprehensive and to address some of these shortcomings.
The R0 draft here is intentionally incomplete: I worked on this draft in a separate HackMD document, but it's at a point where it has sufficient content to allow people to start giving feedback, suggestions and contributions (and I also want to start fixing the links and reworking diagrams so they can be embedded in a mdBook-compatible fashion).
Some inline remarks (presented as quote blocks) are left in during draft phase, will be removed when ready.
Revision History
Revision history is maintained through individual commits, so they are not repeated here.
@jieyouxu meow (do you plan to continue working on this at some point)
yes meow
I'm closing this PR because I think I have a better idea for how to organize the overview and I didn't really vibe with this organization (of information dependency flow, I still find it confusing myself). I want to talk about it in the reading club and w/ t-compiler ppl ~next week. (And it's easier to start from a fresh plate.)