Re: object oriented compiler/interpreter - HOWTO

Rob Warnock wrote in message 00-07-063...
>Neel Krishnaswami <neelk@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>+---------------
>| If you want to go one step further and learn how to implement
>| realistic bytecode interpreters, compilers, reflection, and object
>| systems, then Christian Queinnec's _Lisp in Small Pieces_ is really,
>| really excellent.
>+---------------
>
>I second this recommendation wholeheartedly! A *superb* book!!


Actually, I was rather disappointed when I read that book! It is
written in a very nice English (as far as I am able to tell), has a
fantastic bibliography, and is, well, thorough. But (and Mr. Warnock
will kill me for this ;-), I think the book has a few problems:


1) It's a LISP book. Primarily it teaches LISP, albeit on a very low
level - the implementation level. Someone who has no interest in LISP
itself will easily get bored.


2) The sections about the two compilers that are implemented (one
->bytecode and one ->C compiler) consist mainly of source-code and
text describing the implementation (and only *this* implementation) in
detail. I would have expected more about the many *different* possible
ways of implementing compilers and interpreters. Especially in
LISP/Scheme there are some crucial problems that can be solved in a
multitude of ways. Mr. Queinnec gives one solution and goes over
several pages implementing it. And that's it. Alternatives are only
mentioned as a reference to the bibliography. The same goes for the
object system.


      For a book of this size (and of this price!) this is not enough.




felix

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