alt.hn

2/14/2026 at 4:50:47 PM

Amsterdam Compiler Kit

 https://github.com/davidgiven/ack

by andsoitis

2/14/2026 at 7:50:56 PM

Is this the same compiler that famously spurred Richard Stallman to create GCC [1] when its author "responded derisively, stating that the university was free but the compiler was not"?

It seems to be free now anyway, since 2005 according to the git history, under a 3-clause BSD license.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.en.html

by ptx

2/14/2026 at 6:41:09 PM

It's interesting that they have a Raspberry Pi GPU backend, but neither an ARM backend nor any modern ISA. (such as x86-64, Aarch64, etc.) Is there any example program that actually runs on the rpi gpu? I skimped the website, but it is only mentioned in the release notes.

by unusual-name

2/14/2026 at 7:22:04 PM

One of the first widely used compiler toolkits with multiple frontends, intermediate language for the phases and a common backend.

Contrary to common understanding LLVM wasn't the very first one, ACK also not, there are others predating it when diving into compiler literature.

by pjmlp

2/14/2026 at 7:01:38 PM

I’m still making my way through the MINIX book. Love it.

by barfiure

2/14/2026 at 9:53:35 PM

Are you working through the 1st or 2nd edition of the book ? I think these are the ones that used ACK.

by AlexeyBrin

2/14/2026 at 10:18:39 PM

I remember after I read the 1st edition, bought MINIX ($150 !!), and then was very annoyed to find that the compiler source was not included. Luckily it was '89 or '90 and GCC sources were available.

by rwmj

2/14/2026 at 6:08:45 PM

Why the name amsterdam?

by bartkappenburg

2/14/2026 at 6:15:30 PM

Renamed from Free University Compiler Kit

by akritid

2/14/2026 at 6:10:03 PM

> © 1987-2005 Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

by mbreese

2/14/2026 at 6:04:39 PM

tl;dr: A kit for targeting several old or old-ish platforms, with code in some languages popular in the 1980s: C89 (ANSI C), Pascal, Modula 2, Basic. A 'kit' here means: frontend, codegen, support libraries and some tools. This is apparently known as being the default toolchain for Minix 1 and 2.

But - the repository is not "everything you need"; it actually relies on a lot from an existing platform - GCC, Lua, Make, Python etc. So, you would typically use this to cross-compile it seems.

by einpoklum

2/14/2026 at 7:29:16 PM

It doesn't rely on gcc. Any C compiler will do. The rest is there to build it on " Linux, OSX, and Windows using MSYS2 and mingw32". Indeed for cross-compilation, as it won't run on CP/M.

by tgv

2/14/2026 at 6:36:26 PM

> apparently known as being the default toolchain for Minix 1 and 2.

That is not very surprising since Tannenbaum is a professor there and cowrote wrote the ACK and wrote Minix.

by consp

2/14/2026 at 7:48:41 PM

ACK used to be self-hosting. Of course, standard Unix utilities like sh and make are required. I still use one of those versions.

by phicoh