Compilers are for just a few who write languages and tools for the rest of us, or are they?

In his blog post "Rich Programmer Food", Steve Yegge argues that 'you need to write one' -- To solve difficult problems, make yourself a better programmer and to gain a fundamental understanding of how computers work.

Kelly McDonald wll present a few reasons why you would ever want to build a compiler, a few real-life examples that I have employed, the basic steps of creating a compiler, common tools that assist in compiler writing, and hopefully a working example along with time enough for Myers to quench his thirst after the meeting.