Re: Book "Writing Compilers & Interpreters"

>>I was wondering if anyone has the book "Writing Compilers and Interpreters"
>>by Ronald L. Mak and if it's worth buying.
>[or how it compares to Fisher & LeBlanc]


If you want a book which gives the construction of a compiler, try Allen
Holub's excellent 'compiler design in C'. The book starts off with a
section on lexical analysis, then follows up with sections on grammar and
then includes the actual source of two parser's and a lexical analyser,
explained step by step.


Also included is a complete C compiler, broken down and explained
thoroughly.


I used this book to write a compiler for my honours project, and apart
from a lot of errors and a few bugs, it gives superb insight in how a
compiler works, how values are manipulated and is written in a friendly
and untheoretical manner.


I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about compiler design.
--
/\/\artin-/\/\artin Nike, Coventry Polytechnic, England.
JANET:cmg996@uk.ac.coventry
INET:cmg996%coventry.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
[Holub's book has been discussed at length in the past here. It gives the
complete annotated source code for a working compiler, the only book I know
of that does so. Early printings suffered from a phenomenal number of
editing and printing errors, but errata sheets are available (see message
90-06-081) and recent printings fix most of them. -John]
--

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