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It's been about 4 years since I took a compilers course (from OMSCS, graduate program) and still shutter ... it was, hands down, the most difficult (yet rewarding) classes I've taken.


Based on another reply I can’t tell if there’s a clever window-based pun that I’m missing. If not, I think you want “shudder” and not “shutter” here. I’m sorry if I just ruined the joke.


I loved that course so much but it was incredibly difficult to do while also working


What did you find more painful about compilers than other forms of programming?


I think there is a million ways to make a compilers course.

The course I did was organized perfectly with big parts of compiler boiler plate already written, and I only had to implement parser/lexer rules and the translation of language structures into assembly instructions. Also it was a compiler for a language designed just for this course with the intention of it being specifically easy to write a compiler for it and not programming.

Without this I can imagine it being a painful experience


I used to judge CS programs based on if they had compiler classes or not.


I took that course too and ruined my life...by making me think writing a compiler could be fun. The course itself was worth the money I paid for the program.


It made me drink myself Venetian blind.


I would like to agree with this comment, but I certainly didn't find it rewarding. It was pure pain.


10 years ago I took few coursera courses to fill the gaps in my computer science education.

One of them was a compilers course done by karpathy. It was pure joy and a great learning experience.

Also in my experience the joy of doing a course was much stronger correlated with the teacher's qualities rather than the subject itself.


Do you have a link by by chance? A quick search didn't turn anything up.


No, I am checking my emails (it was in 2012), and all the links are broken.

however I could dig out the references to it. Apparently it was a course by Prof. Alex Aiken and karpathy was a TA.

This repository seems to be a future version of the same course. https://github.com/gboduljak/stanford-compilers-coursework

Edit: found the videos from the course on the archive https://archive.org/details/academictorrents_e31e54905c7b266...


Ah yes, I remember this one. Very challenging indeed. Thanks!


Don't know how you stumbled on this (or what you searched for) but this book is gold, has me laughing out loud:

> "I wake up happy, dancing all in the mirror and shit. My confidence is so high I’m practicing how to accept a job I haven’t even applied for yet."


Really interesting format (and appreciate him / Guido being explicit about preferring written prose over [audio] podcasts).

> I remember my niece had a problem with it because her son wanted to drop out of school and pointed to me as, look, I don’t meet school, look at Thomas. And I had to go, no, no, no. I was in a unique situation where the industry was open to anyone who could do the work and I could do the work. That’s not the case anymore. So you have to finish school.


Reminds me of this YouTube video (below) on how difficult it is (nearly impossible) to re-learn how to ride a bicycle when you have the handles are reversed (i.e. pulling left handle bar towards you, the wheel goes to the right)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0


Haha I love this


Thanks for sharing the link. Had no clue. Funny how things came about to be; who would've known that salmon wasn't part of the foundational sushi dishes until this occurred.


Holy hell that was hilarious. I can totally see that happening:

"Hey, I'm hallucinating that that house is on fire."

"Whoa, me too."

...


> Had he been American, I could have conveyed the depth, breadth and velocity of my sugar consumption with a single concept: Cookie Monster, but less particular. Did they have “Sesame Street” in Austria? I feared confusing him if I asked. To play it safe, I said something even more bewildering: “Picture a monster that just ate candy all day long. That’s me.”

> Whether because of jet lag or a shortfall of resuscitative sugar compounds careering through my bloodstream, by lunchtime the first day I was so leadenly tired — even though the only other tasks I had accomplished so far were stripping off my spandex workout clothes to have my body rubbed with salt like a chicken carcass and stripping them off a second time to have my body rubbed with oil like a potato carcass

Stunning writing that had me laughing out loud throughout the entire article.


Just to add, the german speaking version of the Cookie Monster is called Crumb Monster (Krümelmonster).


Thank you for sharing this. Presumably the item spacing with too large (by default) and as such, many of the icons would not display. This fixed it! Appreciate the suggestion


Just skimmed the YouTube video and I'm blown away as well ... anytime my ego needs to get checked, I just scroll through HN posts. Truly impressive


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