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AWK's name is actually an initialism of the last names of its three creators: Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.

Aho, one of the authors of the dragon books. When I studied CS 40 years ago it was given standard literature on compiler construction, a mandatory course.

No idea whether it is still used today. Well, no idea whether there is anything fundamentally new in compilers such an old book would not cover.

Indeed, still in use. Also presumably the Aho of the Aho-Corasick string matching algorithm.

There are plenty of advanced compiler techniques, but you can't understand them until you understand the fundamentals. There will always be a place for the purple dragon book.

Ah, it's purple now. It was green when I studied, became red before I graduated. When I search for it now the thumbnails look unfamiliar.

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