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    <title><![CDATA[Discussion on Does a compiler class still matter? ]]></title>
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        <title><![CDATA[Compilers classes are worth the time...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/10-144846-1572735]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I graduated two years ago with CS and Math degrees and I took a compiler course.  I think the fundamentals they teach are useful far beyond compiler design.  It was not a required course, but it was well worth the time.Many solutions to problems I solve every day can, or do, borrow ideas and concepts from compiler design as well as OS design and concepts.However, I do not agree with dropping Calculus from the CS cirricula.  Calculus is a great way to teach students to think logically, and to make connections between what they are currently doing and what they have done in the past.  What I mean by this is it forces students to look back at their prior math experiences and combine the concepts they learned with the concepts they are currently learning such as applying Algebra to Calculus.  It's all about the thought process.]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeremy6]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2004 07:54:52 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[It's not the destination, it's the journey]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/10-144846-1567108]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Understanding the functionality of the finished compiler is not the point of a compiler class; it's understanding all the technicques (mentioned in previous posts) to get it running.  My CS degree required a year-long compiler sequence (Michigan State University - late 70's, before the dragon book), and I have found the knowledge of lexical analysis, parsing, code generation, and code optimization very useful.I have seen the difference between CS and MIS students in how problems are solved.  The CS design will tend to be more straightforward and robust; the MIS approach will either be verbose, or (with the geeky types) will rely on language idiosyncrasies.]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[rfbrooks]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2004 08:15:20 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[REAL Computer Scientists Do Compilers]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/10-144846-1565914]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I'm glad to see a few other fans of The Dragon Book here. The comments are spot-on -- learning about lexical analysis has been useful to me personally on a couple big data conversion projects and on many system integration projects. Additionally, I have created two systems having what amount to tiny language interpreters that allow end-user types to configure software for different tasks on their own, and to allow some dynamic reconfiguration of image processing stacks and so-forth. I have not written a compiler since Professor Gillete's CS540, but I've used the concepts with amazing frequency. I'm hard-pressed to think of how I'd have solved these problems without knowing the rudiments of &quot;compilation&quot; -- lexical analysis, parsing, and code generation. I don't have a problem with CS cirricula dropping calculus in favor of finite math; I generally think it is a Good Thing. But without an introductory course in automatic processing of artificial languages you've probably got an MIS curriculum, not CS.Nice discussion...   t]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[trl@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2004 17:40:14 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Coment and question]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/10-144846-1565796]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I enjoyed the article very much, I too am a EE and wrote a very rudimentary compiler for a micrprocessor class I took back in the '70's.  One of the reasons that the article struck a chord with me is that I'm contemplating writing a compiler (call me crazy).  Does any one know of any commercial development tools available for use on a PC platform that help/facilatate writing compilers?]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[jvc@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2004 11:09:21 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[lr(1)]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/10-144846-1565596]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I am also a EE but bought an early edition of Aho and Uhlman to help me in my software development work.  I wrote a mini-compiler for a real-time data acquisition application and learned all about regular expressions, context-free grammars, parsing, lexical analysis, etc.  Very cool stuff! This was about the same time LEX and YACC showed up as UNIX tools. (Now I'm really dating myself.)  Enjoy your book.  But don't stop there!  Pick up a copy of A&amp;H's &quot;Dragon Book&quot; and dive in!]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[techrepublic@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2004 01:54:49 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Agreed!!]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/10-144846-1565310]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I was a CS major and did go through a compiler course and developed a compiler.  It was a really hard course,  but I have used almost everything that I learned in that course at some time or another.  While I may never write another compiler,  I have used my knowledge to write parsers, and other systems to handle data in much the same way that compilers handle data.Long live the dragon book!!!]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[ShockRide]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2004 07:22:48 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Very Interesting]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/10-144846-1565248]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[A very good article, Rex. As a CS major I did go through an (introductory) compiler course and found it very valuable. Especially in this age of interoperability; you might not need to write a compiler yourself, but it helps a lot when dealing with, for instance, parsing a complex format. Instead of doing it from scratch, you can use tools like Antlr (www.antlr.org) to have them generate a parser from you from a given grammar (it works for Java, C++ and C#). This is a key subject in compiler construction theory. So it might not be indispensable for day-to-day IT applications development, but it is not knowledge to be considered irrelevant yet.Enjoy your book! ]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[R.Jimenez]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2004 02:39:25 -0800</pubDate>
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