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This course is designed to be a beginner-friendly introduction to compilers. As we evolve, we will incrementally put together an interpreter for a very simple scripting language.
We'll cover:
Compilers always had a reputation for being a difficult topic, and their historical association with dragons 🐉 (starting with the Dragon Book) never really help the cause.
We'll try to approach every explanations with beginners in mind. You can think of it as a "first course" on compilers for developers that never wrote an interpreter before.
We'll build together, from the ground up, a compiler for a simple programming language called Pinky. Think of a toy scripting language with a syntax inspired by Lua and ALGOL W.
x := 0
pi := 3.141592
name := 'Pinky'
-------------------------------------
-- Find the max between two numbers
-------------------------------------
func max(a, b)
if a > b then
ret a
end
ret b
end
-------------------------------------
-- Compute the factorial of a number
-------------------------------------
func factorial(n)
if n == 1 then
ret 1
else
ret n * factorial(n - 1)
end
end
-------------------------------------
-- Main function
-------------------------------------
func main()
i := 0
while i <= 10 do
print(i)
i := i + 1
end
for i := 1, 10 do
print(factorial(i))
end
end
main()
Our main host language will be Python. Python allows us to focus our attention on compiler-specific concepts while being extremely productive. Still, I'll try to include some helpful tips on how to implement the ideas we just learned using the C programming language.
All you need is a command-line, a simple code editor, and a Python interpreter. All these tools are cross-platform, so you'll be able to code along on either Windows, macOS, or Linux!
If you never wrote an interpreter before, or even if you did but still feel you have some blind spots in your understanding of how it all works, then this course is definitely for you!
This is a self-contained course with no prerequisites. However, you will probably get the most out of it if you already know the basics of coding (if-else, loops, functions).
Gustavo Pezzi is a university lecturer in London, UK. He has won multiple education awards as a teacher and is also the founder of pikuma.com.
Gustavo teaches fundamentals of computer science and mathematics; his academic path includes institutions such as Pittsburg State University, City University of London, and University of Oxford.
This course is not just a simple tutorial on how to use third-party tools to parse an existing language. We'll build an interpreter for a toy programming language from scratch while exploring the foundations of formal languages & compilers.
We will always try to put things into historical context so you understand why modern compilers work the way they do.
If you want to understand how computers translate high-level languages to instructions that the machine can execute, then buckle up! This is going to be a super cool journey of pure nerd fun!
73% of our students come back for another course
We don't offer discounts on our courses. Ever.
"I liked the content, the presentation, and the direct way it was spoken."
"No friction, supreme didatics.
I'm taking this course as a master's student of CS, studying HPC.
This is my first course on PIKUMA. The professor has a gift for teaching. He breaks down information to the minimal digestible size and goes step by step, explaining every detail with patience. I personally don't feel like I'm studying. My brain feels like it's watching a Netflix series. No need to take a break, it's pure flow. More importantly, this doesn't happen because the content is shallow or easy. It's a purposeful effort from the professor to make it seem easy, just like any student would want.
The content starts from first principles and goes deep afterwards. Compiler books seemed too dry before this course; I'm sure after completing it, I'll be able to face them better."
"Amazing Course in such a small time! It is amazing all the content this course teaches you in such a very short time. It works as a perfect complement for any compiler book you wanna read, and if some concept is not understood in a book, you can go to the code of the compiler programmed in this course to have a practical idea and being able to continue with the compiler book."
"This course covers everything you need to start your journey in compilers and interpreters. Gustavo provides detailed introduction including some historical overview that allows to understand the field deeply and build necessary reasoning about some of the concepts. I particularly like the intro into various parsing algorithms and LLVM bonus covered in the end, which makes this knowledge very practical and useful in production.
Compilers and interpreters can be found everywhere - software like browsers, databases, designers, configuration systems, etc etc Interpreters enable it to be flexible enough for the customer needs. It is essential part of all major products.
Nowadays when AI easily replaces simple coding patterns it is essential for engineers to understand low level systems as this knowledge cannot be easily replaced and stays important and valuable. I do recommend the course for every developer out there."
"Amazing course! I have been stuck in tutorial h*** for a while now and actually sitting down and learning how to do projects is probably the best way to learn how to program. I recommend starting a second language project alongside this course's pinky and make it in another programming language. and even modify the second language to make it your own."
