A little off topic...my apologies.

I came across a book entitled,

The Art of Compiler Design Theory and Practice
by Thomas Pittman/James Peters
1992

Is anybody familiar with this book?  Is it a good book for a serious introduction to compiler design theory?  So far it seems to read well, but it would be nice to have some experienced recommendations.

Any other books for recommended reading?  I've heard about the dragon book, but I keep hearing people say that it is outdated.  Perhaps it is still good as an introduction.

Thanks!

John

Havent read that one, some ones I liked are

A Retargetable C Compiler : Design and Implementation Writing Compilers and Interpreters

Although the last one , the code doesnt actually work, it was still interesting to see how it was implemeneted.

Let me know how that book is :).

C


"John Reimer" <jjreimer@telus.net> wrote in message news:bplv3b$1pq$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> A little off topic...my apologies.
>
> I came across a book entitled,
>
> The Art of Compiler Design Theory and Practice
> by Thomas Pittman/James Peters
> 1992
>
> Is anybody familiar with this book?  Is it a good book for a serious introduction to compiler design theory?  So far it seems to read well, but it would be nice to have some experienced recommendations.
>
> Any other books for recommended reading?  I've heard about the dragon book, but I keep hearing people say that it is outdated.  Perhaps it is still good as an introduction.
>
> Thanks!
>
> John
>
>
>

Charles Sanders wrote:
> Havent read that one, some ones I liked are
> 
> A Retargetable C Compiler : Design and Implementation
> Writing Compilers and Interpreters
> 
> Although the last one , the code doesnt actually work, it was still
> interesting to see how it was implemeneted.
> 
> Let me know how that book is :).
> 
> C
> 

Thanks Charles.  I think I've heard of the book you mention.  I haven't got it yet.  I try to collect different textbooks now and again. I'll have to keep a lookout for that one too.

Once I get further into it, I'll let you know how this book turns out. So far, I consider the theory to be pretty thick and heavy.   It treats mathematical set theory and grammar definitons as important topics.  I have to kind of rack my brain to get familiar with some of this new concepts.

Later,

John

For those interested, I noticed that an updated "Dragon Book" is to be released early next year (it's about time -- last one was 1986).  It's now called:  21st Century Compilers.  It appears much updated with discussions on garbage colletion and other modern compiler design topics.  It doesn't sell cheap, though!

Maybe I should have posted this in chat, but considering how chatty it is in here, I think it's still on topic ;-).

Later,

John

<jjreimer@telus.net> wrote in message news:bs2d0n$f7m$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> For those interested, I noticed that an updated "Dragon Book" is to be
released
> early next year (it's about time -- last one was 1986).

Too late, I already wrote the compiler <g>.

>Too late, I already wrote the compiler <g>.
>
>

Darn, you're too fast. :-D

But for the rest of us...

I assume you would still recommend this book, right?

I actually heard the dragon book was abit outdated and disorganized.  I more of a hands-on person then theory, hopefully the new book will contain alot of examples.  Next year is along time away though :/

C

"John Reimer" <John_member@pathlink.com> wrote in message news:bs4fa9$lau$1@digitaldaemon.com...
>
> >Too late, I already wrote the compiler <g>.
> >
> >
>
> Darn, you're too fast. :-D
>
> But for the rest of us...
>
> I assume you would still recommend this book, right?
>
>

In article <bs4kuc$u1f$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Charles says...
>
>I actually heard the dragon book was abit outdated and disorganized.  I more of a hands-on person then theory, hopefully the new book will contain alot of examples.  Next year is along time away though :/
>
>C

I have to say.

On my commodore amiga years (almost 20 years ago)
I bought a book called somothing like
Design your own C compiler on C.
So I follow the thing and end up with my own language.
I couldn't realy make a compiler so it was interpreted.
The source code was compiled into a byte code that was
fast to parse and contain calls to a lib.
Those things are very easy to build. (This statment makes this post On Topic;)
I made it in assembler not C (Motorola 68K macro assembler
is a much better language then some I used professionally since)
The language was a mix of the features I liked better from C and Pascal.

So this contradicts my first post. I didnt' remember!
The same thing happend when 2 years ago I bought a violin and
started teaching myself. I was saying that it was my first violin
when I had inherited one from a great-uncle when I was 13!...

Ant

In article <bs4kuc$u1f$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Charles says...
>
>I actually heard the dragon book was abit outdated and disorganized.  I more of a hands-on person then theory, hopefully the new book will contain alot of examples.  Next year is along time away though :/
>

Yes, I heard the same of the old book.  I was hoping the new book would change that reputation somewhat.  And actually it is due to be released in January of 2004, so that's not to long from now. :)

As for theory verses practice, I believe the book is a combination of both, and provides some implementation details.  I too am not interested in pure theory, though I understand the need for it in the complicated field of compiler design.

Hopefully the new book is an improvement on the original.  I may get it later. I'm using the ancient version of the book (1979 :-p -- don't laugh, picked it up for cheap)  so anything's got to be better than that :-).

Later,

John Reimer

In article <bs4kuc$u1f$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Charles says...
>
>I actually heard the dragon book was abit outdated and disorganized.  I more of a hands-on person then theory, hopefully the new book will contain alot of examples.  Next year is along time away though :/
>

I heard the same about the original and am hoping the new book will fix these issues. I also prefer implementation examples to back up theory, so it would beneficial if the new book provided a small language implementation.  I know other books that do. At the same time I understand the need for a good theoretical base to comprehend complicated compiler design. The book I have is the old dragon book (1979 -- believe it or not; hey, it was cheap!).  So I'm kind of interested to see what the new book has to offer.  Lots of examples in it would indeed be welcome!