Re: Dragon Book - update necessary?

LLkParsing@aol.com wrote on 10/13/00 10:23 AM:


>> For undergraduate work the only complaint I've had with this book is
>> that it's very wordy.
>
> Wordy is a charitable description of the book's readability. On the
> other end of the scale is the also old, but still good "Crafting a
> Compiler with C" by Fischer & LeBlanc. Dragon does make an excellent
> reference though.


"Crafting..." is a great book for those who want a step-by-step
description of how to implement a recursive-descent compiler in C.
However, the theoretical coverage is a little weak. It makes a great
reference for someone writing (simple) compilers in HLLs; I'm not sure
how good it would be in a classroom setting where you're teaching
compiler theory rather than the mechanics of actually coding a
compiler. Also, I suspect most schools are using Flex/Bison
(Lex/Yacc) or something similar for student projects, so a book that
teaches recursive descent parsing in C is probably of less use to such
schools (personally, I prefer writing recursive descent parsers, but
that's just my own personal belief system at work).


I would be interesting in finding out how many instructors out there
still have their students write their compiler projects in a recursive
descent fashion using a HLL like C.
Randy Hyde
[I wrote mine in Trac. -John]

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.