How can we make it easier to experiment with the compiler

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

On Tuesday, 25 May 2021 at 12:38:56 UTC, jmh530 wrote:
> Refactoring won't happen overnight and more people who 
> understand the compiler the more can assist with that and other 
> things in the meantime.

They best way to refactor is to partition and encapsulate then 
you can replace one item at a time. The only people who can do 
this is people who are willing to dig deep into the codebase.

But this thread is about experimentation. Experimentation on top 
of parts that are considered unstable is futile. You don't need 
to understand every single piece of the compiler to have fun 
extending it. And you should focus your efforts on the stable 
parts.

Parts that are considered unstable need to be encapsulated and 
provide interfaces so that people can build on those interfaces 
instead of making change hard by tying more stuff to the code 
that you want to replace.