On 05/01/15 16:23, Esther Schindler wrote: > On Jan 5, 2015, at 3:24 AM, Alaric Snell-Pym <ala...@snell-pym.org.uk> wrote: > >> On 03/01/15 15:26, Esther Schindler wrote: >> Greetings, Esther! What kinds of compilers have you optimised, out of >> interest? I have studied traditional compiler optimisation, but by >> day-job I tend to optimise a compiler from SQL queries into a >> stack-based intermediate representation that's run in a highly parallel >> fashion across clusters of servers, which is an almost totally different >> world, but good fun nonetheless! > > It's more than 20 years since I worked on a compiler. Back then it mostly > traditional compilers, such as the FORTRAN compiler for the Wang VS > minicomputer. Remember those? > > I switched to writing full time in 1992. One reason why was that, if I had a > "bug" in my writing, I knew _right where it was_.
I know what you mean. As a kid, I often had interesting ideas for software, and was faced with the thorny choice of (a) implementing it or (b) writing science fiction about it already existing. (a) had a much larger reward, but (b) had a VASTLY better benefit:cost ratio! > >> >>> Anything else you'd like to know? >> >> What's your magnetic permeability? I mean, obviously, humans are >> probably about as magnetically permeable as salt water, but the less >> significant digits probably vary a lot based on all sorts of interesting >> factors. Does anybody measure this property of humans? Nobody ever asks >> people that. If I ever again build a Web site with "password recovery >> security questions", that'll be the one I'll ask, as not other Web site >> will have it for hackers to steal and come to my site to steal people's >> accounts. Yeah! > > I confess. I don't know. #GeekShame > I don't know mine either! I'm sure it should be testable with a sine wave generator, two large copper coils, and an oscilloscope, though, if only I knew the maths to interpret the results... ABS -- Alaric Snell-Pym http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/alaric/
