How can we make it easier to experiment with the compiler?

[12345swordy]

On Monday, 24 May 2021 at 10:34:35 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 5/24/2021 2:44 AM, Alexandru Ermicioi wrote:
>> They are not simple for new volunteers to dmd.
>
> You're right, they are not. They're optimized for the people 
> who spend thousands of hours working on it.
>
> This inevitably happens with every profession, every 
> discipline, and every project. A jargon specific to it grows up 
> around it, for the convenience of the people who work on it 
> every day. If the jargon is consistent and reasonably logical, 
> it can be a great aid to understanding once one gets familiar 
> with it.
>
> Unfortunately, I have failed at my original design goal of 
> making DMD a simple compiler. Reshuffling files around and 
> renaming things will not help. What will help is better 
> encapsulation - unfortunately, that is hard to do.
>
> There are some reasonably well-encapsulated parts. The lexer, 
> the parser, and the files in the root package. To understand 
> the compiler, I'd start there.

I seriously question the "Optimized for people who spend 
thousands of hours working on it" line, as I had a very 
intelligent person posted on slacks asking what does this 
function do, as there is no comments for said functions.

-Alex