Re: How to justify teaching compilers

"Pg Nor Jaidi Pg Tuah" <jaidi@fos.ubd.edu.bn> writes:


> ... how would you justify keeping/introducing your beloved compiler
> course?...
>
> [I don't think many CS students are likely to write a C compiler,
> but most of them are going to write things that are scanners or parsers,
> even if they don't call them that. -John]


John's argument is a classic one, which I do not find completely
satisfying, because I happen to be quite fond of the back end and not
just the front. Some of the other arguments I therefore make include


  * The compiler, and the compiler-design course, is "where the rubber
      meets the road." Students have taken courses in which they think
      about computations, and typically also at least one course in which
      they think about computers. But how exactly does computation meet
      computer? Surely a computer scientist ought to understand this.


  * Compiler design is paradigmatic of how abstract thinking can be
      useful for practical goals, and more broadly of why a computer
      scientist is superior to a mere programmer. In a compiler-design
      course, a student will encounter some nice, elegantly formulated
      problems that have equally nice, elegant solutions. The student
      will also encounter some other problems, on their surface equally
      nice and simple, for which searching for a perfect solution is
      foolish, unless you think you can prove P=NP. Moreover, the
      student will see what one does instead of throwing up one's hands
      when confronted with such hard problems. And all of this is in a
      practical context.


  -Max Hailperin
    Associate Professor and Chair
    Mathematics and Computer Science Dept.
    Gustavus Adolphus College
    800 W. College Ave.
    St. Peter, MN 56082
    USA
    http://www.gustavus.edu/+max/

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