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The best compilers, interpreters & program analysis videos, according to Hacker News

97 videos about compilers, interpreters & program analysis that Hacker News commenters keep pointing each other to, ranked by how many separate months they were recommended. Part of Software Engineering & Languages.

Lexical Scanning in Go - Rob Pike

GoogleFOSSSydney

161K views · 2011 · 13 HN recs

HN returns to it for years as an elegant introduction to writing a lexer that is easy to follow even without a parsing background.

Eric Bier Demonstrates Cedar

Computer History Museum

7K views · 2019 · 3 HN recs

HN keeps citing it as proof of how advanced a GC-based systems language and integrated workstation were decades ago, and as a model for what desktop OSes could be.

A JVM Does That?

Google TechTalks

80K views · 2011 · 4 HN recs

A repeated recommendation for anyone interested in VMs, with Click's talks regarded as unusually informative on JVMs, JITs and the user/kernel boundary.

Halide Talk

Andrew Adams

52K views · 2014 · 5 HN recs

Recommended as the clearest explanation of Halide's ideas and of scheduling for performance.

Building Your Own Dynamic Language

Stanford

20K views · 2008 · 3 HN recs

HN commenters recommend it as a way to understand what the VPRI group considers core, such as supporting any syntax on one JIT compiler and removing boundaries between application and interpreter.

Making R run Fast - Jan Vitek

John O'Neill

864 views · 2016 · 3 HN recs

HN points to it as the best explanation of why R is so hard to optimize, often paired with talks on Python and used to explain what makes Julia fast.

Illustrating Crafting Interpreters

Bob Nystrom

12K views · 2018 · 2 HN recs

Shared in Crafting Interpreters threads because it shows the care behind the book and is satisfying to watch.

A 10x faster TypeScript

Microsoft Developer

608K views · 2025 · 2 HN recs

Commenters cite it as the authoritative source for why the port is faster and why Go was chosen.

Analyzing Programs with Z3

Compose Conference

24K views · 2016 · 2 HN recs

HN lists it among the practical entry points for learning Z3 and formal verification.

Oral History of John Backus

Computer History Museum

17K views · 2013 · 1 HN recs

HN recommends it because hearing pioneers explain early computing in their own words conveys the context and excitement of the era.

Demo: Implicit Context

Jonathan Blow

27K views · 2015 · 1 HN recs

Cited in discussions of memory arenas and allocators as the origin of the implicit context idea that later appeared in Odin and other languages.

React without memo

React Conf

150K views · 2021 · 1 HN recs

Shared in discussions of useCallback and memoization as the first look at where React was heading with an auto-memoizing compiler.

JVMLS 2015 - Java Goes AOT

Java

7K views · 2015

Cited in AOT discussions as evidence that Oracle was moving toward AOT in the JDK and as an explanation of the deoptimization concerns.

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