Re: Appel Book : Modern Compiler Implementation In C ??

Sahan Amarasekera <sahan_a@my-deja.com> wrote:
: I am a complete beginner to compiler construction. I was wondering
: whether the book Modern Compiler Implementation In C (the 1998, later
: version) by Andrew W. Appel is a good book for me to begin with.


: I have read the "comp.compilers monthly message and Frequently Asked
: Questions" message and seen the review by Quinn Tyler Jackson that
: seems to suggest it is good for beginners. I was just wondering : What
: does everyone else think ?


The Appel book is used at Edinburgh University for a 3rd year course
in Compiling Techniques, with the implementation of a compiler for a
subset of Tiger being the coursework. When I did the course last
year I found the book confusing in parts, and its referal to tables
and figures some pages away a constant irritation.


However, I did find it informative despite its confusing nature.
Some of this confusion may be because the C was not written by
Appel - the book was orignally ML, and then translated to C and Java,
so the C and Java are not great examples of how to code in those
languages (the Java version uses few OO programming techniques).
--
Mark Scott
4th Year Computer Science
Edinburgh University

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