A portable compiler for the Modula-2 programming language has been implemented with a simple, machine independent optimizer. The front end of the compiler generates a dialect of P-code, and the back end translates the P-code into machine language. The compiler fits well in the Unix environment.The design philosophy of the compiler "best simple". Whenever possible, design decisions were made to favor the simplest alternative that got us most of what we wanted. Benchmark results show that the code quality is comparable to or better than other good compilers.