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Re: Why should students still study compilers?

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From ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de
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Subject Re: Why should students still study compilers?
Date Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:37:54 +0000
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Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org> wrote or quoted:
>So I'm curious what people on this list think: **Why should a computer science
>student today take a compiler course?**

  A computer science student should be prepared for a computer
  science career at a university, so he clearly needs compiler
  construction there. But maybe he could still learn this as a
  postgrad.

  Some percentage, like 5 or 10 percent of graduates might in fact
  write or maintain compilers or interpreters at some organization.

  Others might use their knowledge to implement DSLs.

  With the new AI programming agents, the programmers do often not
  write code themselves, but they might need to supervise these tools.
  This requires knowledge in compiler construction when the project
  at hand is related to this field.

  Other students will not need this class indeed, but this can often
  only be seen in hindsight. When the student studies, it is often not
  yet known what parts of his education he will need in the future. So
  one needs to include those topics that most students will probably
  need so that later they can choose between as many career paths in
  the field as possible.

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Thread

Why should students still study compilers? Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org> - 2026-08-24 17:44 +0000
  Re: Why should students still study compilers? ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de - 2026-08-26 16:37 +0000
  Re: Why should students still study compilers? Davide Grandi <davide.grandi@email.it> - 2026-08-29 09:31 +0200

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