RE: Mathematics skills for writing a compiler?

> What mathematical skills do I need in order to build an "average"
> compiler?
> such as numerical methods, CFG, DFS.... etc


<IMO>
Set and graph theory definitely don't hurt. A smattering of background
in combinatorics comes in handy when the going gets tough.


Hands on experience with a few "toy languages" and lex and yacc-like
tools and a copy of Levine et al.'s _Lex & Yacc_ and Friedl's
_Mastering Regular Expressions_ will carry you a long way, too.


Then, an audit of Appel's _Modern Compiler Implementation in C_,
followed by Muchnick's _Advanced Compiler Design Implementation_,
possibly followed by Reynold's _Theories of Programming Languages_.


Possible forrays into Kirkerud's _Porgramming Language Semantics_ will come
in handy at some point, IME.


Finally, Levine's _Linkers & Loaders_ to close the loop.
</IMO>


I realize you asked about math skills, rather than a "study path" -- but if
you follow the above cycle and at each step hunt down the backgrounder
information required to really grok each resource -- you may come out of it
with those as a side-effect.


--
Quinn Tyler Jackson


http://members.shaw.ca/qjackson/


"Never express yourself more clearly than you think."
-- Niels Bohr

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