Ask HN: What to learn with 8-16 weeks of recuperation

Re:Ask HN: What to learn with 8-16 weeks of recuperation by arnold_palmur on Thursday March 31, 2016 @11:49AM (#11398025)

If you haven't already, build a compiler - it's an enlightening experience and gives you a lot of intuition.

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Re:Ask HN: What to learn with 8-16 weeks of recuperation by tedmiston on Thursday March 31, 2016 @12:18PM (#11398290)

I've been tossing around the thought exercise of writing a minimal Python interpreter. Do you feel similarly about writing an interpreter, or strictly a compiler?

(I have studied formal languages a little bit... enough to know the basics of finite automata, context-free grammars, lexers, etc.)

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Re:Ask HN: What to learn with 8-16 weeks of recuperation by arnold_palmur on Thursday March 31, 2016 @12:24PM (#11398350)

I can't exactly say since I've never built an interpreter, but I am in the process of building a compiler (it's been a challenging and rewarding experience thus far), but I'm sure you would learn a lot from both endeavors. If you already had this project on your mind you should definitely go for it.

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