Writing a compiler is a very good practice for learning how complex problems could be solved using methods from software engineering. It is extremely important to program rather carefully and exactly, because we have to remember that a compiler is a program which has to handle an input that is usually incorrect. Therefore, the compiler itself must be error-free. Referring to Niklaus Wirth, we postulate that the grammatical structure of a language must be reflected in the structure of the compiler. Thus, the complexity of a language determines the complexity of the compiler (cf. Compilerbau....

Beside the computers itself, programming languages are the most important tools of a computer scientist, because they allow the formulation of algorithms in a way that a computer can perform the desired actions. Without the availability of (high level) languages it would simply be impossible to solve complex problems by using computers. Therefore, high level programming languages form a central topic in Computer Science. It should be a must for every student of Computer Science to take a course on the organization and structure of programming languages, since the knowledge about the design of...