Compiler Construction or Web Programming?
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
Hi, Do the compiler construction. Simple reason is that web programming can change on a regular basis. Yesterday PHP and ASP were the standards, now you have Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET and a whole bunch of others. Each one is fairly similar to the other and learning them should take very long. Compilers on the other hand will teach the bare basics of how things fit together. They will have concepts like FSAs and non-FSAs, which will make you think the understand more of the computing background than just simple programme learning. At the end of the day, I always approach learn and studying to learn the concepts rather than the syntax. The concepts is what gets you through rather than the syntax. If you now "what" you are doing, learning "how" to do it is a piece of cake. My 0.02c :) Cheers.
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
It all depends on what you like more. Compiler "construction" can be very technical and theoretical (language parsing, code generation, ...); Web programming can be more "hands-on", but can also include theoretical part when talking about user interaction, usability, network optimization ... I agree with you about the learning part, learning "web" stuff is easier on your own, while learning compiler theory will be more arduous.
Watched code never compiles.
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
Do the brain-dead thing and take the web languages course. You can spend more time with your girlfriend! I forgot, you are a Computer Science major. So no girlfriend! :laugh: So go for the compiler construction course and you will be happily spending your evenings with your first love - the computer!
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
Do compiler construction. I know from experience that it is difficult and rewarding. At your future job, you will almost certainly not have a chance to do anything related to compiler construction, and you will certainly have many opportunities to do web development. Web development is easy... read a tutorial format book and you've learned all a class would have taught you and more. Compiler construction is the thing you'll miss out by not learning it while you have the opportunity. Also, in a job a few years out of college I was able to use some compiler construction knowledge when I made a module to parse a template language for a tool that sends emails. So I did get some practical use out of the class. And one final note. You will probably have a few web development classes in your studies too. I say take the lower level class (compiler construction) first as a foundation for what you will learn later on. It will, for example, give you an understanding of why JavaScript is implemented the way it is. Oops, just noticed you said you're in your final semester. In that case, definitely hop on compiler construction while you still have a chance.
Somebody in an online forum wrote:
INTJs never really joke. They make a point. The joke is just a gift wrapper.
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
Compiler. It may be the only chance you get access to an expert (I hope the teacher is one anyway) in it. But more than that; programming has layers, and so many of today's practitioners learn only the pretty surface layer and have little knowledge of the fun stuff in the bowels.
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
Compiler construction without a doubt. You can teach yourself Javascript while brushing your teeth. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
Compiler Construction. You can learn the latest Web whatever anytime.
Ger
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So I just want to start out saying that I am a long time lurker, and first poster. If I do anything against the rules, be gentle... Anyways, I am about to enter my final semester in college, finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and have to make a choice regarding my final upper level elective. The choices happen to be a course in compiler construction or a course in web programming languages. I can only take one, but will only have one other course to take, so time will not be too much of an issue. I know each have pros and cons, but, I am just curious as to what you guys and gals in the community might know from experiences. BTW, I am leaning towards the compiler construction, my reasoning being that it may be more difficult to learn that on my own, but I have been wrong in the past.
Compiler construction. It is what the web languages are based upon ;) the web is easy to learn on your own or on the job.
Alberto Bar-Noy --------------- “The city’s central computer told you? R2D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!” (C3PO)