Re: Chapters for Aho et al

Max Hailperin <max@gustavus.edu>
19 Dec 2005 00:09:31 -0500

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Related articles
Chapters for Aho et al faceman28208@yahoo.com (2005-12-15)
Re: Chapters for Aho et al max@gustavus.edu (Max Hailperin) (2005-12-19)
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From: Max Hailperin <max@gustavus.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 19 Dec 2005 00:09:31 -0500
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 05-12-040
Keywords: books
Posted-Date: 19 Dec 2005 00:09:31 EST

faceman28208@yahoo.com writes:


> Every on-line book store has a "review" dated Nov 8th from "AW Editor"
> under the dragon book stating that updated chapters 5-11 are available
> at the publisher's website. No URL given.
>
> Does anyone know where these are?
> [It took me about 30 seconds to find them at aw.com. Visit
> http://wps.aw.com/aw_aho_compilers_2/0,11227,2663889-,00.html
> For some reason, they use flash, popups, Javascript, and just about
> every other unpleasant web hack short of ActiveX. -John]


On the other hand, when I wrote A-W an email asking for a better
alternative, the editor sent me a polite reply and followed up prompty
by sending me a hardcopy. (My email had indicated that they needed to
send me such a hardcopy, or a PDF file, if they wanted me to consider
adopting these chapters for my course. As I put it, they needed to
make me feel like a professor reviewing a possible textbook adoption,
rather than like a voyeur at a peep show.)


As it turns out, having read the hardcopy, I decided not to adopt
these chapters for my course this spring, but rather to with the
previous edition. These preliminary versions of the revised chapters
are not (yet) up to the quality standards of the previous edition, and
-- at least as importantly -- are not focused in such a way as to add
much value to my undergraduate course. Someone teaching a more
advanced (second) compilers course might well find them more
attractive. I would encourage such a person to negotiate a better
access means. The flash access is too painful to consider seriously.


    -Max Hailperin
      Professor of Computer Science
      Chair, Mathematics and Computer Science Department
      Gustavus Adolphus College
      800 W. College Ave.
      Saint Peter, MN 56082
      USA
      http://www.gustavus.edu/+max/


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