Any opinion on Udacity's compiler classes versus Coursera's? There is a gap of one week between them, so we can try both and choose the one that suits us, but still, any gut feel?
I'm not experienced much on implementation differences between compilers and interpreters, but Coursera seems like a compilers course versus Udacity's interpreter.
I personally much prefer Udacity's format--short videos (30 seconds to ~7 minutes) with a question after most of them, and then an explanation video. The Coursera courses I've seen have 15 minute videos/1 question, so I don't find myself retaining the material as well.
Moreover, Udacity (atleast for CS373) asks programming questions as quizzes, so you have more exposure to the programming rather than just the theory.
I don't know if this will be as bad for a compilers class, but CS373 definitely let a lot of the math be magic versus Coursera's Machine Learning class.
I feel like Udacity's compiler class would be more practical and more entry level as compared to Coursera. Its target audience are the people who finished the recently concluded CS101 course. Coursera's version would be more theoretical, thorough and closer to a Stanford level undergraduate class. Coursera's version has midterms as well exams. So I feel like it would be around 10 weeks long as compared to 7 weeks for Udacity.
Like you I plan to try both of them and ideally finish both of them. I am also waiting on them to announce a part 2 of the Data Structure and Algorithm class.
I don't think they are both compilers classes. At many universities there's an undergrad class with "programming languages" in the name (principles of ..., paradigms of ..., etc). Compilers is often a separate, more advanced class, perhaps with the PL class as a prereq. Based on the syllabi the two classes seem to follow this tradition, with the Udacity class being the PL class and Coursera the compilers one.
I personally much prefer Udacity's format--short videos (30 seconds to ~7 minutes) with a question after most of them, and then an explanation video. The Coursera courses I've seen have 15 minute videos/1 question, so I don't find myself retaining the material as well.
Moreover, Udacity (atleast for CS373) asks programming questions as quizzes, so you have more exposure to the programming rather than just the theory.
I don't know if this will be as bad for a compilers class, but CS373 definitely let a lot of the math be magic versus Coursera's Machine Learning class.