Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.misty.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED.news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Why should students still study compilers? Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:37:54 +0000 Organization: Compilers Central Sender: johnl%iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <26-08-009@comp.compilers> References: <26-08-004@comp.compilers> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="43877"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com" Keywords: courses Posted-Date: 26 Aug 2026 13:01:37 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:3746 Roger L Costello 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.