Re: education suggestions

"ls" <lstavenhagen@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I have done some study on my own, reading through the Dragon Book and
> attempting to write my own compiler for a fragment of C by hand. These
> have helped a good bit, but I don't think I can go much further
> without getting some assistance.
>
> So I'm looking for suggestions on higher education programs. I.e.,
> where do I go to learn compilers? ;)


Unfortunately I cannot help you so much when it comes to educational
institutions, but if you aren't well read on virtual machines, then
that's something you might want to study before heading back to
college. Bytecode interpreters have been around in languages for many
years, but only recently have they become an almost 'expected' part of
mainstream languages. For example, look at .Net (encompassing C++, C#,
VB, etc), Perl, Parrot, Python, and similar languages. VMs certainly
seem to be the order of the day and familiarity with them will
probably help you a lot.


I whole-heartedly recommend the excellent "Virtual Machine Design and
Implementation in C/C++" by Bill Blunden. I believe the publisher is
"WordWare" although it's available at Amazon and all the usual
outlets. This book helped me come up to speed on numerous issues,
including the development of assemblers and debuggers, which while
some may not consider them regular 'compilers' in and of themselves,
certainly help one in developing more complex compilers in the future.


Hopefully other posters will have ideas as to which educational
institutions will be best for you, although I have personally noted
that most Comp. Sci. courses include modules on compiler and OS
development. As to which offers the best, I cannot say.


Cheers,
Pete

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