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From: rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Theory vs. Practice in CS Education
Message-ID: <4967@ae.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 89 16:18:53 GMT
References: <880@dms.UUCP> <7044@hubcap.clemson.edu> <4251@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito)
Organization: Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 22

In article <4251@pegasus.ATT.COM> Paul S. R. Chisholm writes:

>What good are compiler courses?  Well, when writing code I want to run
>fast, I always feel more comfortable when I know more or less what the
>compiler is going to turn my code *into*; and the only way I can do
>that is at least read about compiler implementation techniques.

Nonsense -- this has nothing to do with software engineering, the original
topic.  At the engineering level, you don't care what the compiler is doing
with the code anymore than an architect cares how electricity flows through
wires.

If you wish to specialize in designing compilers, take the course.


Rich

-- 
We use kill ratios to measure how the war is going.
We use SLOC ratios to measure how our software is coming.
(Idea from Gary Seath)                                        rsd@sei.cmu.edu
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