So we went on vacation over the past few days. The place - Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It sucked. Car had problems and we wound up going the "scenic" (i.e. long) route up and back. No fun at all. We're calling this our test run for the year, we definitely need to go somewhere better to make up for it. Enough of my travel woes, though, I shall continue with something more computer oriented.

Before we left on our trip, I ordered a book to read up on compiler design, the one I chose was Principles of Compiler Design by Alfred V. Aho and Jeffrey D. Ullman.

The book is from 1979, but having no experience in the field of compiler design, I figured it was as good a place to learn the basics as any, and it only cost $10 with shipping, so even if I don't get a lot from it, it's not a big loss.

As you'll know from my last entry, i'm planning on attempting to write a BASIC compiler for the PIC16F84, which will no doubt be a time consuming project. There's a compiler design course that I have to take eventually for my CSCI degree anyway, so it can't hurt to have at least some experience behind me anyway.

So far the introductory material is presented in a nice way, but of course it's just an overview of everything to come. I'll of course be keeping my successes and failures here in my trusty journal. Until next time.