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0 pointstormeh10y ago0 comments

At my school (NTNU) there's even talk of removing the compiler course. It's a ye-olde write-a-compiler-for-a-c-like-language-in-c course ("the cs students should learn C at some point "), which I find all kinds of wrong, but it's still sad.

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5 comments · 2 top-level

cousin_it10y ago· 3 in thread

Just curious, what's wrong with writing a compiler for a C-like language in itself?

It seems to me that one of the goals of a compiler course is to fill the mysterious gap between what machines do and what high-level languages do. For maximum educational effect, the language being compiled should be the same as the language used for the compiler. Anything higher level than C would probably require a runtime, with garbage collection etc., so a C-like language seems like the obvious sweet spot.

tormehOP10y ago

Well, because writing a compiler is pretty hard, and I would like to not juggle pointers to arrays of pointers while doing it. C wastes your time, basically. And a C-like language is profoundly unexciting, at least to me; I can almost see the assembly lying underneath.

kbenson10y ago

Well, they could write a list in python, but that's more a single night's homework than an entire class (with the appropriate foreknowledge) to my understanding, so what's an interesting middle ground? A logical language (e.g. Prolog) would be interesting, but I have no idea the complexities involved. I imagine implementing in python would reduce the complexities of the actual programming step allowing more time for what I think are the interesting parts of a compiler course.

cousin_it10y ago

What would you propose instead? Which language is easy enough to compile, and pleasant enough to write a compiler in?

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pjmlp10y ago

Just checked NTNU.I've spent sometime in Trondheim when doing consulting for NetCom, nice city.

My university (FCT/UNL) had a strong focus in language design, data structures and systems programming back in the 90's as part of the compulsory lectures, with everything else being optional credits.

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