Join us each month on the second Thursday for conversation with other Linux users as well as information relevant to Open Source.

This month's talk, "Compilers and Interpreters for Dummies: What they are, how they work (from a 30,000 foot level) and why you should care", is presented by a veteran of the Open Source community, Jon "maddog" Hall.

Perhaps you took compiler design in undergraduate study (like I did) and perhaps you took it again in graduate study (like I did) and perhaps you just barely passed it each time (like I did).

There probably were many reasons why you hate the thought of compilers and if you were ever asked to teach a course it in your response would be "ARE YOU CRAZY"? This was actually the response of a friend of mine at Bell Labs in 1982, where he also made the sign of the cross in front of me while running away.

Unfortunately I had no choice in 1977 when at Hartford State Technical College I had to teach the subject to 19-20 year old students who, before they entered my classroom as freshmen, had never seen a computer other than on TV or in the movies.

In the second year of their two-year course they went from knowing NOTHING about computers to being able to write a simple database, a simple operating system and a simple compiler. Of the three, the latter was "the student killer". My job was to help them survive.

And so I had to learn compiler design. When you are a student you can "bleep" over certain parts of the material, because the professor may not ask that question on the test, and if they do you can still get a good grade if you do not know it.

This does not work when you are teaching the subject, because just the thing you do not know is the thing that some snot-nosed kid is going to ask you about. So you have to know it COLD.

It has been over twenty years since I taught compiler design, but I can still go up to a whiteboard (yes I can even remember chalkboards, overhead projectors, etc) and draw the diagrams for how a compiler, interpreter and even Java Beans work.

So I offer you a 1.5 hour "Introduction to Compiler Design" which will hopefully show you how this marvelous piece of software can do this:

cat \ | A MIRACLE HAPPENS | cat - \

Note that this 1.5 hour talk will attempt to replace a thirty hour university course, so YMMV.

Jon "maddog" Hall is the Board Chair Emeritus of the Linux Professional Institute, Co-founder and Senior Advisor to Caninos Loucos, Executive Director of Linux International and the President of Project Cau??.

maddog (as he prefers to be called) is currently the Open Source Technical Advisor for Qsentinel, a company providing a Quantum Computer Resistant environment to protect files and communications while protecting the sovereignty of the user's data and computing.

maddog has been a programmer, systems designer, systems administrator, product manager, technical marketing manager, university educator, author, CEO and consultant since 1969.

In 1973 was programming in assembler language on large IBM (360/370) mainframes, utilizing IBM's Virtual Machine software. From 1977 to 1980 he was the Department Head of Data Processing at Hartford State Technical College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1980 to 1983 learned Unix systems while working as a systems administrator at Bell Laboratories.

In 1986 while working for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) he met Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation and maddog embraced "Free Software".

maddog met Linus Torvalds in 1994 and recognized the commercial importance of Linux and Free and Open Source Software, Hardware and Culture. Facilitated the port of the Linux Operating System to the 64-bit DEC Alpha processor.

He enjoys talking to students over pizza and beer....the pizza is optional.

maddog has traveled the world (visiting over 100 countries, most more than one time) speaking on the benefits of Free and Open Source Software, and received his BS in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel University (1973), and his MSCS from RPI in Troy, New York (1977).

As usual, pizza and beverages will be provided this evening and the meeting will be held at the North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207, 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606 at 7:00 PM.

There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM.

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic, please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at [email protected]