Relationship Types
The Language Lineage dataset tracks six types of relationships across 443 total edges. Each relationship type has its own evidence requirements and confidence scoring.
These relationships document what programming language each compiler is written in. For example, GCC (the GNU Compiler Collection) is written in C.
These relationships document what programming language each runtime or interpreter is written in. For example, CPython (the reference Python interpreter) is written in C.
Bootstrapping is the process of writing a compiler in the same language it compiles. These relationships show the bootstrap chains, what language was used to write the initial compiler before self-hosting was achieved.
Conceptual influence relationships document which design ideas, syntax features, or programming paradigms one language borrowed or adapted from another.
Transpilation (source-to-source compilation) converts code from one high-level language to another. For example, CoffeeScript transpiles to JavaScript.
These relationships document cases where a language runtime or compiler was substantially rewritten in a different implementation language.
Not sure which relationship type to look for? See Compiler, runtime, and bootstrap explained for a plain-language breakdown of the three most-confused terms.
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