Re: Online compiler courses?

> If you've been at this long enough to know all about DFAs, CFGs and so
> on, then you're ready to do what people who wanted to learn something
> did before they even had the option of going online: Get a book.


Hi Louis,


I've also been going through books at the library, trying to find a
good compiler text. It's frustrating. The dragon book is considered
the canonical work, but it's quite meaty and difficult for self
study. I believe that's the general consensus.


As to other texts, I'm looking at Andrew Appel's book, and it's ok,
but I think this kind of course is best suited for classroom sessions
instead of self study, with lots of assignments to help the pedagogy.
Just my opinion of course but writing a compiler I think takes a lot
of hands on work, like engine building-- something that's best done by
doing instead of reading through a Chilton or Haynes manual.


It also doesn't help that a number of compiler texts are over ten
years old and focus on C development instead of java. Again, I have
nothing but respect for the C programming language but I'm more
experienced with Java and would prefer to use that if at all possible.

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