You Can Get There From Here. This is an unusual series. We're fortunate to be able to take advantage of Terence Parr's expertise in compilers as well as his expertise in teaching Java programming. You don't have to understand compiler technology to benefit from it. That's partly obvious.
All programmers use compilers.
Think of a tool like grep . Using compiler technology is a lot like using grep. You can use a parser generator, or a parser, without understanding its innards. However, knowing what's happening inside the machine can give you insight into how to use compiler technology more effectively in your programs. For example, suppose one of your problems is to extract a list of all the images referenced in a large set of related HTML files on a web site.