GSOC Linker project

[H. S. Teoh]

On Mon, May 07, 2012 at 07:21:54PM +0200, Paulo Pinto wrote:
[...]
> I have spent a huge time in the university learning about compiler
> development, reading old books and papers from the early computing
> days.
> 
> So in a general way, and not directed to you now, I saddens me that a
> great part of that knowledge is lost to most youth nowadays.
> 
> Developers get amazed with JavaScript JIT compilation, and yet it
> already existed in Smalltalk systems.
> 
> Go advertises fast compilation speeds, and they were already available
> to some language systems in the late 70's, early 80's.
> 
> We are discussing storing module interfaces directly in the library
> files, and most seem to never heard of it.
> 
> And the list goes on.
> 
> Sometimes I wonder what do students learn in modern CS courses.
[...]

Way too much theory and almost no practical applications. At least, that
was my experience when I was in college. It gets worse the more
prestigious the college is, apparently.

I'm glad I spent much of my free time working on my own projects, and
doing _real_ coding, like actually use C/C++ outside of the trivial
assignments they hand out in class. About 90% of what I do at my job is
what I learned during those free-time projects. Only 10% or maybe even
less is what I got from CS courses.


T

-- 
The two rules of success: 1. Don't tell everything you know. -- YHL