alt Hacker NewsIf you don’t mind me asking, why and how did you make the switch? Going from webdev to compilers seems like a strong U turn that’s not easy to pull off, especially because the resources on compilers out there are extremely scarce
If you don’t mind me asking, why and how did you make the switch? Going from webdev to compilers seems like a strong U turn that’s not easy to pull off, especially because the resources on compilers out there are extremely scarce
I've been working full time for like 3 yrs as C# dev + doing higher edu at weekends at the same time and I was about to decide thesis topic.
I've been searching for something challenging and found some very random post on programming forums about how compilers are hard etc and decided to give it a try.
I had kind of advantage that I accidentally had some significant amount of experience with handwritten parsers (at first job we were doing custom-markdown-like-language renderer as PoC or even when doing apprenticeship in high school I was rolling out csv parser instead of using libs, because... I'm not sure why, I probably didnt know how to use package manager or something)
I started reading about it a lot like dragon book (but it wasnt that useful tbh, too much math heavy)
or https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs6120/2020fa/self-guided...
or playlist like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgHIkdUQbp0
And after year of jumping into it from time to time I've implemented small, custom-lang to LLVM IR to webassembly (via LLVM) compiler.
Then I had to find new job (we were very poorly paid) and I was interested in semiconductors industry because it was gaining traction (e.g chip war book) and it felt way more engineering oriented unlike web dev. Web dev tech decisions felt for me very religious, like fancy-conferences/blogposts oriented.
And since semiconductor industry often touches compilers, then that was opportunity for: better salary, interesting projects and in future transition to compilers
I've joined semico company as C# dev and then due to project cancellations/lay offs I managed to join compiler team and stress hard during first months since I had to learn new lang, new ecosystem, tools, approaches, techniques (e.g debugging) and only familiar thing was LLVM, which I was very beginner at.
but after that initial shock things were better, but I feel like I still need to improve my knowledge related to modern hardware, modern computer architecture, etc.
Debugging is very, very useful, cross-stack skill :)