SectorC C compiler
Shares rank 10 of 18 c compilers by recommenders
A tiny, educational C compiler people admire for its clever tricks; critics say it supports only a subset of C.
A tiny, educational C compiler people admire for its clever tricks; critics say it supports only a subset of C.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 69%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good for learning how compilers work
“it's very simple. I think it would be a great introduction to learning about compilers”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes” “Great educational resource too.”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes” Clever hacks and tricks
“Really nice project and good trick with hashing tokens.”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes” “It has some interesting hacks.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Making a Python interpreter in 1024 bytes”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Overpromises as a full C compiler
“Lacking support for structs, I think this is too minimalistic to be called "a C compiler".”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes” “headlines that overpromise and underdeliver. It's essentially false advertising”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes”
Other c compilers people recommend
The four most recommended other c compilers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fil-C | 160 | 60 | 73% | 13 | — | Approved |
| Claude's C Compiler | 39 | 83 | 32% | 5 | — | — |
| Visual C++ | 29 | 17 | 63% | 12 | — | — |
| Tiny C Compiler (TCC) | 22 | 3 | 88% | 9 | — | Approved |
| SectorC C compilerThis page | 9 | 4 | 69% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It has some interesting hacks.”
“this is worse than Sector C, which takes every shortcut and just plain assumes everything in the source is right.”
“headlines that overpromise and underdeliver. It's essentially false advertising”
“Great educational resource too.”
“the exact instructions from the Readme were followed and it didn't work”
“it's very simple. I think it would be a great introduction to learning about compilers”
“Nice. Very K&R-ish. Not a bad thing.”
“Lacking support for structs, I think this is too minimalistic to be called "a C compiler".”
“it's not so much a C compiler, as a compiler for a subset of C”
“Really nice project and good trick with hashing tokens.”
“This is a great demonstration of how simple the bare bones of C are”
“It was an absolute blast making this!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.