HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from CppCon 2019: Matt Godbolt “Compiler Explorer: Behind The Scenes” Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

CppCon 2019: Matt Godbolt “Compiler Explorer: Behind The Scenes”

48 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this talk2 months2021–2025 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended as the source on how Compiler Explorer began and for its lesser-known features like the machine code analyzer.

Matt Godbolt tells the story of Compiler Explorer, from a hacky basement server to a cloud-scaled service handling tens of thousands of daily requests. He also shows its features and how it is built.

“a cool feature he presented is the integrated LLVM Machine Code Analyser tool” (HN, 2021)

2 recommendations · 2 citations · Talks · intermediate

4 Hacker News comments

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

@flohofwoe Mar 2021 Recommends
on HN thread How to Read Assembly Language
There's a few nice hidden features presented in Matt Godbolt's talk here: [this video] As for LLVM IR output, just use the right clang command line options: [link] Likewise for WASM: [link]
Matt Godbolt presents hidden features of Compiler Explorer.
@jiggawatts Jul 2021 Recommends
on HN thread Apple and Intel first to use TSMC 3nm
I recently watched the CppCon 2019 talk by Matt Godbolt "Compiler Explorer: Behind The Scenes"[1], and a cool feature he presented is the integrated LLVM Machine Code Analyser tool. If you look at the "timeline" and "resource" views of how a Zen 3 executes a typical assembly snippet, it is absolutely mind blowing. That beast of a CPU has so many resources it's just crazy. [1] [this video]
Shows the LLVM machine code analyzer timeline and resource views inside Compiler Explorer.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@pjmlp Jul 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Strict memcpy() bounds checking for the Linux kernel
Indeed, for Matt Godbolt, and the whole community that has added the remaining AOT languages, .NET is one of the few missing from Compiler Explorer, but it has a similar one at [link] and there is one at [link] for GPGPU shaders. Here is one talk from Matt Godbolt about how Compiler Explorer was born, CppCon 2019: Matt Godbolt “Compiler Explorer: Behind The Scenes” [this video]
Matt Godbolt explains how Compiler Explorer was born.
@turtledragonfly Apr 2025 Cites it
on HN thread Dirty tricks 6502 programmers use (2019)
Read more
> But I wonder how common the knowledge is these days ... In one sense, it is less common, as you imply (though perhaps it's more that the number of high-level programmers have ballooned, rather than that the low-level ones have shrunk). In another sense, it's more accessible than ever, with tools like godbolt[1][2], VMs, cool profilers that show you a heatmap overlaid on assembly instructions, etc. And embedded development, where those details matter more, is still going strong, with IoT devices and so forth. [1] part of a presentation on it, if you're not already familiar: [this video] [2] the site itself: [link]
Presentation introducing Godbolt's Compiler Explorer.

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.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close