Re: What's available in Compiler Jobs ?

"Ajig Alcalde" <ajig@interpac.com.hk> wrote:


>1. Are you guys working as compiler writers, or are many of
>you hobbyists? (I know there quite a few students here).


I work in industry, writing compilers as a part of my work.


>2. What do you think is the future for this market?


There will always be room for someone who is good at writing
translators for little languages ... special-purpose languages for
specific applications. But gcc pretty much killed the marketplace for
generic C/C++ compilers. Stallman, in religious fervor, put many of
us out of work with his programs, which if I read the GPL right, was
his explicit intention.


That said, there is always compiler work going on at one place or
another. You just have to find it. I look mostly in well-funded
industrial shops that have programmers whose expertise lies in other
areas. There are always little languages needing to be written. You
find the need, you make up the language, you write the translator into
C or whatever, and they love you.


>3. Is the demand growing? (With Microsoft dominating the compiler
>market for PCs, my outsider opinion is that it is decreasing).


You don't want to write a C++ or VB compiler anyway. Trust me. M$
goes where the money is, and it will never be in custom work. The way
to deal with them is to stay out of their sights: pick markets that
they don't compete in. Like, write a Limbo compiler for Win32. Or,
develop a great C compiler for the latest Motorola DSP. The world
always needs more of these.


>Your replies will help me decide which discipline to study in the next few
>years. Private replies welcome.


Study functional programming, in particular, Objective Caml. It gives
you an advantage over the competition, because it's hard to learn and
most people give up. Think, Archimedes' Lever.


Dwight
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