Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!hp4nl!eurtrx!euraiv1!reino
From: reino@cs.eur.nl (Reino de Boer)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Theory vs. Practice in CS Education
Message-ID: <1989Nov17.090716.11068@cs.eur.nl>
Date: 17 Nov 89 09:07:16 GMT
References: <880@dms.UUCP> <7044@hubcap.clemson.edu> <4251@pegasus.ATT.COM> <4967@ae.sei.cmu.edu>
Organization: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, dept. CS (Informatica)
Lines: 25

rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito) writes:

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

>>What good are compiler courses?  Well, when writing code I want to run

>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.

Although a compiler course is relevant to software engineers, if only to
understand more about designing languages and their implementation.
Didn't someone once say:
	each program is in fact an interpreter for a language (where the
	language defines all legal input to the program, and the semantics
	of the various inputs)
If noone ever said it, how about your comments ?

-- 
Reino R. A. de Boer
Erasmus University Rotterdam ( Informatica )
e-mail: reino@cs.eur.nl