"Bayley, Alistair"
Hear, hear. Compilers, and computationally complex programs in general, are atypical. IMO, a lot of programming these days is integration work i.e. shuffling and transforming data from one system to another, or transforming data for reports, etc. Not many programmers write compilers these days :-(
I'm sorry, but, if we define "compiler" as a input->process->output pipeline, then: "shuffling and transforming data" = compiler "transforming data for reports" = compiler I actually think a lot of useful programs fit into that category. (I certainly hesitate to accept the alternative, i.e. to admit that all my programs are useless :-) -k -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants