The section on dynamic compilers is more or less all about trace compilation. Generally, trace compilation is a dead end and has been abandoned repeatedly. The more important concepts here are type feedback and speculation and deoptimization, as well as making fast compilers and tiering.

The course overall looks good, and it's great that so much is available online, so well done, Adrian.

I'm a bit confused about what makes this course "advanced." Most of the topics (dead code elimination, data flow, dominator analysis, SSA form) seem like they belong in a first course on compilers.

Previously...

CS 6120: Advanced Compilers: The Self-Guided Online Course - https://smackernews.com/item/39577878 HN - March 2024 (102 comments)

Advanced Compilers: Self-Guided Online Course - https://smackernews.com/item/35130975 HN - March 2023 (82 comments)

Advanced Compilers: Self-Guided Online Course - https://smackernews.com/item/25386756 HN - Dec 2020 (232 comments)

How does this compare to Nora Sandler's "Writing a C compiler" in terms of the potential gains for the reader?

Are there any other self-guided online university level CS courses like this?

Is there also a self guided course for "basic compilers", before stepping into an advanced level?

Saw a podcast that talked about the rust compiler, which apparently included machine learning algorithms at some points to determine whether or not you had code that could crash your system

Thanks for creating and sharing this.

I'm super curious what alexia massalin is up to these days, besides collecting microunity patent royalties

Great material! Thank you.