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by ecommando 5538 days ago
Excellent suggestion. That was a great post by Steve, and I can see his points. I especially love the answer to the C++ question ;-)

However, I ask you, please revisit this post in 20 year, when you've run the gamut of jobs, startups, and made a ton of money, and then ask yourself, "Did I ever really use any of the knowledge I gained in my compiler design and application courses?

You already know the answer will be "no".

I'm not saying it's not important for some people. For some, it's truly foundational and life changing. For others, it's a complete waste of time, and I'm not saying that to one-up or make myself seem super-hero-like. It's just the way it is.

How am I qualified to make such statements? I have coded assembly by hand since the 6502 and Z80 processors came out, since before there were compilers, and I'd happily list projects I've done in assembler if there's interest.

Cheers R

1 comments

>since before there were compilers

The first compiler was written in 1952. The first complete and usable one was introduced in 1957 for FORTRAN.