"The first time I did it, I didn't even know what I was doing. In truth, nobody in the team really did. It was in the mid 80's. The pre-copyleft era. We needed to write specialized compilers for a distributed LISP and a distributed PROLOG. They would compile for dual-core CPUs embedded in blade-like boards each connected to a fast bus and sharing memory. Lots of work; good pay though.
"We downloaded a LISP compiler strain from CMU. It's public domain now, but we didn't know it would be nor did we care.