Hacker News Reader

> It isn't really a compiler, because the target language is the same as the source.

I think it could still be deemed a "compiler" even if it output the same language if it was doing some significant transformation or modification of it.

But, yes, in this case I think you're right and a "pretty-printer" is a better description of it.

View on HN

Compiler:

a program that converts instructions into a machine-code or lower-level form so that they can be read and executed by a computer

Since they add features, I guess this would qualify as it outputs a "lower level form", but man it's really pushing the definition.

I'd say transpiler, or at least preprocessor. It does add a language feature, after all.

I just added a second feature called "inout", which lets you pass variables by reference

Reply on news.ycombinator.com