Re: Where's the Dragon Book, 2nd edition

On 4 Oct 2004 00:48:27 -0400, Jürgen Kahrs <Juergen.Kahrs@vr-web.de> wrote:


> Does anyone know what's going on at the Dragon' home ?
>
> http://www.aw-bc.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0321131436,00.html
>
> The 2nd edition of the Dragon book was originally advertised as
> appearing in late 2004


Surely the 2nd edition appeared in 1986 (the red dragon) and the 1st
edition in 1977 (the green dragon).


> ... (which would be rather soon now) but now they
> advertise it for early 2007.


Doing the maths would suggest that 3rd (what colour is that to be)
edition should have appeared in 1995, and we'd be waiting for the 4th
edition to be released this year. ;-)


> ... Aho/Sethi/Ullman seem to mimic Knuth.


But will Knuth ever get to write about compiler theory? He has
committed himself to writing volumes 4 and 5. Of the other two volumes
he has this statement on his website "I plan to publish Volume 6 (the
theory of context-free languages) and Volume 7 (Compiler techniques),
but only if the things I want to say about those topics are still
relevant and still haven't been said."


> ... Or is this advertisement just a macabre joke of Kafkaesque
> dimension ?


Perhaps the dragon is yet to metamorphise.


> [I can assure you from experience that it's remarkably hard to
> finish a technical textbook on time. You wouldn't believe how late
> my book on qmail was. (Or maybe you would, if you were waiting for
> it.) -John]


Been there; wrote that; not finished on schedule.


Regards, Trevor


<>< Re: deemed!

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