Verbose is a small experimental language I'm building. Its compiler proves properties about your code — like termination — and emits tiny, readable x86-64 machine code: no runtime, no GC, no libc. This post stands on its own (you don't need the rest of the series). What it's about: a compiler written in Verbose itself reached the point where a single rule emits a standalone Linux ELF that runs and prints its answer.
Honesty first: this lives on a working branch — not merged, not tagged. It's verified (green test suite, real in-memory execution, a measured benchmark), but it isn't in a released version, and it covers a sub-language (scalar arithmetic), not all of Verbose. More on that at the end.
Two halves of a compiler
A compiler has a half that reads (text → tokens → tree) and a half that writes (tree → machine code). The reading half is the usual story. The new part is the writing half — and the thing that makes it interesting here is that the code generator is itself a Verbose rule. The Rust compiler underneath (verbosec) only runs it; the machine code is emitted by rules written in the language.
Follow factorial all the way down
