February 14, 2026
Compile me, maybe?
Amsterdam Compiler Kit
Retro toolkit returns: fans nostalgic, skeptics ask “is it alive?” and GPU jokes fly
TLDR: A classic compiler suite for retro computers is back, thrilling nostalgia fans while raising questions about whether it’s still actively maintained. The hottest debate: a quirky Raspberry Pi GPU target with no modern chip support, leaving the crowd torn between retro love and “why not 2025-ready?” expectations.
The Amsterdam Compiler Kit (ACK) just resurfaced like a vintage vinyl—proudly compiling 1980s-era languages (think C89, Pascal, Modula‑2, Basic) for a buffet of old-school platforms, from MS‑DOS and CP/M to PDP‑11 and MINIX. That set the comments on fire: some cheered, some squinted, and one asked if this is a museum piece or a living project.
The commentariat split fast. ramon156 went straight for the pulse: “Looks cool… last post in 2022… is it feature complete?” Translation: nostalgia is cute, but is anyone still home? einpoklum delivered the sober explainer—this is a full toolchain (compiler + code generator + libraries) famous as the default for MINIX—then lobbed a gentle warning that the repo relies on extras. Meanwhile unusual-name lit up the thread with a plot twist: ACK has a Raspberry Pi GPU backend, but not modern chips like x86‑64 or ARM64. Cue the memes: “So we can program the Pi’s graphics but not the Pi?” and “Compiler from the future for machines from the past.”
Add in a head‑tilt from bartkappenburg (“Why the name amsterdam?”) answered by the fine print—built at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam—and a love note from a MINIX reader, and you’ve got it all: romance for retro, confusion over the GPU oddity, and a classic debate—preserve history or keep up with today?
Key Points
- •ACK v6.2+ is a full compiler toolchain with language frontends, code generators, libraries, and tools to build executables across supported targets.
- •Supported languages include ANSI C (with K&R via the ANSI C compiler), Pascal, Modula-2, and Basic.
- •Targets span legacy and Unix-like systems, producing formats such as CP/M .COM, EM22 bytecode, Linux ELF (i386, m68k, MIPS32r2, PowerPC), Minix, MS-DOS, OS X Mach-O, PDP/11 V7 Unix, and Raspberry Pi GPU binaries.
- •Building requires gcc (or another ANSI C compiler), flex, yacc, GNU make, Lua with lua-posix, Python 3.4+, and ~1GB; it builds on Linux, OS X, and Windows via MSYS2/mingw32.
- •Usage centers on the 'ack' command with options for platform, output, optimization (up to level 6), and language inferred by file extension; examples and a man page are provided.