Re: Good practical language and OS agnostic text?

Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@nospam.aol.com> wrote


> IMO the OP will be comfortable with Wirth's books, languages and
> compilers, which are understandable even without a big theoretical
> background. Even if Wirth is concerned with *teaching* compiler
> principles, his languages and compilers are not the toys as many people
> believe. E.g. Oberon implements a complete OS, with the compiler being
> an integrated part of the entire system. From there it's only a small
> step to understanding and implementing e.g. JIT compilers, which require
> an different approach from stand-alone compilers.


I've always found Wirth's terse descriptions tough. I know he was
revolutionary so I will have to go over these again and try harder.
Thanks for your comments.


> Again I suggest the OP to dig into the various (optional) parts of an
> compiler later, when he discoverd a *practical* need/motivation for code
> flow analysis, register allocation etc. Many people (like me ;-) are
> much more open to the theory, when they have practical examples for
> their application *before*.


Very perceptive observations. Thanks for posting them.


> Life is too short for writing an full-blown heavily-optimizing
> production compiler from scratch, including its whole RTL. A beginner
> IMO is better off with a small language and compiler, where he can study
> the related problems, and can find out the areas of his personal interest.


Thank you for your comments. I found them very helpful.

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