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Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

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Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#91

Post by monoideism »

kick wrote: post #81
bakery2k wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an engineer in silicon valley Good point. The biggest factor that determines an engineer's salary is location, followed by years of experience. Not whether they work on compilers/embedded/web/whatever.

Not whether they work on compilers/embedded/web/whatever. Not true! See: salaries for people who know kdb+, that embedded engineers almost always get screwed on comp.

> salaries for people who know kdb+

If you are suggestingn that kdb+ salaries are extremely high, like I often read here, I disagree. I did some research in this area, and despite the rumors, found lots of kbd+ jobs posted with very mediocre salaries. It seems unlikely that such jobs would been filled if salaries are as high as people have suggested on HN.

For example, here's a senior kbd+ deb job in Manhattan (high cost of living) that pays 165-185,000/year. I make almost that much as a senior dev in a low cost of living area. I'd expect to make at least $250,000/year in NYC or California.

Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#92

Post by kick »

monoideism wrote: post #91
kick wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not whether they work on compilers/embedded/web/whatever. Not true! See: salaries for people who know kdb+, that embedded engineers almost always get screwed on comp.

> salaries for people who know kdb+ If you are suggestingn that kdb+ salaries are extremely high, like I often read here, I disagree. I did some research in this area, and despite the rumors, found lots of kbd+ jobs posted with very mediocre salaries. It seems unlikely that such jobs would been filled if salaries are as high as people have suggested on HN. For example, here's a senior kbd+ deb job in Manhattan (high…

I know multiple people who have jobs using kdb+, and I use an array language myself for work.

Every type of job site will have postings that are way below market rate. The market rate for kdb+ devs is well above that, I can assure you.

Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#93

Post by rsmckinney »

crystaldev wrote: post #74
pjmlp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Degree in CS, ideally with a thesis on the field.

This is the real answer, it's a huge career risk to make compilers your niche unless you have an academic background in it. The gatekeepers in most CS specialties are really good, and there's an attitude that if you're not at least pursuing a doctorate/working on a big Google project then you're probably a charlatan.

Meh. No doubt there are snobs in the field, but in my experience most of the grit and innovation tends to come from solid engineers without a language/compiler focus, let alone the phd.

Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#94

Post by quickthrower2 »

well_said wrote: post #69

Compiler engineer... It is very sad how the engineer term has been corrupted. You are an engineer only if you pass the FE exam and are a registered member of the state association of engineers

You’re gonna be replying to a lot of HN posts with this trope then.

Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#95

Post by monoideism »

kick wrote: post #92
monoideism wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> salaries for people who know kdb+ If you are suggestingn that kdb+ salaries are extremely high, like I often read here, I disagree. I did some research in this area, and despite the rumors, found lots of kbd+ jobs posted with very mediocre salaries. It seems unlikely that such jobs would been filled if salaries are as high as people have suggested on HN. For example, here's a senior kbd+ deb job in Manhattan (high…

I know multiple people who have jobs using kdb+, and I use an array language myself for work. Every type of job site will have postings that are way below market rate. The market rate for kdb+ devs is well above that, I can assure you.

So would you please give me an idea of what market rate is for a senior dev working with kbd+ in NYC? Roughly? If it's well above 180,000, what is it? Thank you.

And I don't mean quants. I mean software developers.

And yes, it's true that every job category will have outliers (high and low), but after spending some time several years ago looking at jobs and speaking with recruiters, I'm skeptical. I've enjoyed learning about array languages, and had heard the rumors of high kbd+ salaries, which is why I was curious.

And I get that kbd+ is just a technology, and much more depends on individual qualifications. So let's say, an experienced, highly-qualified senior dev who has taught themselves kbd+, just for arguments sake.

Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#96

Post by fuzzieozzie »

kstenerud wrote: post #27

Check out http://www.compilerworks.com I worked there for awhile but compilers aren't really my thing. They're building cool stuff, though. Their tech converts database queries between dialects, and can even run as a translating proxy (for example, run Oracle code on Postgres) and provide performance insights into your code. Their clients are big name companies who need to maintain millions of lines of DB code.

Thanks for the kind words Karl.

Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#97

Post by aednichols »

ablekh wrote: post #84
aednichols wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no specific experience with compilers (I missed the chance to take the class in college due to scheduling conflicts). My current day job, at a research nonprofit, is working on a system whose behavior is driven by an external DSL. I get to work on the parser/compiler type thing that generates executable units and the interpreter that actually runs them. This is certainly not the “big leagues” as far as compile…

Thank you for sharing your experience. Do you use a more or less well-known toolset like MPS or Xtext or it is some kind of a custom framework? Any lessons learned and best practices regarding external DSL design and development?

We built everything ourselves. The parser in particular was written in-house by a Person Who No Longer Works Here who was a parser enthusiast (Conway’s law). If we were starting from scratch today I would think we would use an off the shelf package. One excellent choice was to make the language [0] an open standard and now there is at least one totally novel implementation [1] in addition to ours [2].

0. https://github.com/openwdl/wdl

1. https://github.com/chanzuckerberg/miniwdl

2. https://github.com/broadinstitute/cromwell

Re: Ask HN: Are compiler engineers still in demand, and what do they work on?

#98

Post by ablekh »

aednichols wrote: post #97
ablekh wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Do you use a more or less well-known toolset like MPS or Xtext or it is some kind of a custom framework? Any lessons learned and best practices regarding external DSL design and development?

We built everything ourselves. The parser in particular was written in-house by a Person Who No Longer Works Here who was a parser enthusiast (Conway’s law). If we were starting from scratch today I would think we would use an off the shelf package. One excellent choice was to make the language [0] an open standard and now there is at least one totally novel implementation [1] in addition to ours [2]. 0. https://gith…

I appreciate your clarifications. Until now, I was aware of [0], but not [1] and [2]. Your implementation seems be much more popular than both the new alternative and a reference implementation. The (general and scientific) workflow engines universe is very large - it likely contains, at least, dozens of production-level implementations. Such diversity is both a blessing and a curse, though ...
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