I don't mean this in a terse way: screw 1999Else than that, compiler development is a pretty well researched topic, as iansjack points out there are plenty of books regarding the subject. There are articles dating back to 1999 (before this forum even existed), regarding this stuff.
There are papers, books, talks, etc about BOTH going back to the 60s.. Let's not keep falling back on that crutch. I do agree that it's a diverse subject. They both are. This conversation is starting to have about as much disagreement in it and crutches laden throughout it as most operating systems,nevermind the religious like ideologies of the competing ones, and compilers do in methodologies. It used to be that was the point. Though progress is always somehow made through it.
General purpose languages are barely starting to implement some of the research done a LONG time ago (70's). If your only looking to 1999, you've got a long reading list ahead of you my friend.
Point is, learn and never stop learning. If you think you've gone far enough, keep going because you never really know the end till your there. With software, your never at the end as it's always changing, and can always be updated or new features added, bugs removed, etc.
