If you just want to be a run-of-the-mill coder, and write stuff… you don’t need to take compilers. If you want to learn computer science and appreciate and really become a computer scientist, you MUST take compilers. Compilers is a microcosm of computer science! It contains every single problem, including (but not limited to) AI … Read more
What programming languages are context-free? […] My gut tells me that functional languages might be context-free […] The short version: There are hardly any real-world programming languages that are context-free in any meaning of the word. Whether a language is context-free or not has nothing to do with it being functional. It is simply a … Read more
The dead code problem is related to the Halting problem. Alan Turing proved that it is impossible to write a general algorithm that will be given a program and be able to decide whether that program halts for all inputs. You may be able to write such an algorithm for specific types of programs, but … Read more