Re: Textbook opinions?

Pat Terry (CSPT@giraffe.ru.ac.za) asks about:
: Compiling in Modula-2 - a first introduction to classical recursive descent
: compiling
: 0-13-088741-2 by JR Ullmann of King's College, London UK


: Compiler Construction - a recursive descent model
: 0-13-291139-6 by John Elder of Queens University, Belfast


I have a copy of Julian Ullmann's book. I should mention that Julian used to
be my boss, and so I fall into the category of `biased fan'.


Julian's book constructs a compiler for a pretty substantial subset of
Modula-2 in Modula-2. The target language is a simplified 8086 assembler.
Segmentation, for instance, has been dropped and there are no byte mode
operations. Explicit IMPORT and EXPORT directives have been added.


The book contains a lot of code, but it is _not_ just a commented code
listing like the old P4 compiler booklets. The text is very readable and
contains many useful exercises. There are particularly useful chapters on
error recovery and introductory aspects of code optimisation.


I like this text a lot. To me it feels like a grown up version of Chapter
5 of Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs which has always been one of
my favourite introductions to compilers. I should take a look.


                                                                  Adrian


Adrian Johnstone, CS Department, Royal Holloway, Univeristy of London
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