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Demo: Base language, compile-time execution

8 videos recommended on HN
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1 HN user recommended this demo1 month2015–2022 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN cites it as an early demonstration of compile-time code execution, predating its popularity in languages like Zig.

Jonathan Blow demos his prototype programming language, covering the base language and compile-time execution, including running a game while compiling. The video is about 70 minutes of demo followed by Q&A.

“Here’s an old video where he demonstrated this” (HN, 2021)

1 recommendations · 3 citations · Demos · advanced · partly dated

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@codetrotter Aug 2021 Recommends
on HN thread Constexpr is a Platform (2020)
Jonathan Blow’s programming language allows almost anything to execute during compilation as well. It’s neat. Here’s an old video where he demonstrated this: [this video]
Early demo of running code during compilation.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@zenogais Aug 2015 Cites it
on HN thread C2 Programming Language
Jonathan Blow is working on at least part of this (sorry, the only links I could find were to his videos about it) [this video]
Blow's language work on compile-time execution.
@atesti Jul 2018 Cites it
on HN thread Compile Time C++ Snake Game (2016)
Sounds like what Jonathan Blow demoed in his new programming language JAI: [this video] Execute a invaders game with OpenGl while compiling and embedding the score in the code (Just a demo, the idea is to replace makefiles with compile time execution, etc.)
Demo running a game at compile time.
@Tozen Oct 2022 Cites it
on HN thread What Makes the Zig Programming Language Unique?
> Zig's use of comptime is fairly revolutionary in a c-like language Not revolutionary. Before Zig came out, which was 2016, there was Jonathan Blow talking about and arguably repopularizing it. Lots of people (who knows how many developers) and languages were influenced by him too. 2014, Jonathan Blow, who made lots of videos and gave lots of talks, before going on to officially promote Jai (2016). And it appears he was playing around with prototypes much earlier and talking about it (from 2014). [this video] (Demo: Base language, compile-time execution)
Evidence Blow popularized compile-time execution before Zig.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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