Customer Reviews

Compiler Design (International Computer Science Series)

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This is a useful and highly informative text. It covers technique and structures for the efficient compilation of OO, functional, and Logic Programming Languages -- languages not well covered by the Dragon Book. The code examples are sparse, and in pseudocode. The authors present a lot of theory as mathematical formalisms -- one of the most precise and complete ways to do it of course, but reading it is uphill work. They also cover technique and give reasonable discussion of the complexity of various approaches. The coverage of detail is absolutely superb.

However, to my eye and mind, the book is dreadfully dull. I find most compiler texts fun and engaging, inviting me to explore new ideas and make judgements about approaches. By contrast, this text is like being led by the hand (or by the nose) through every decision, idea, and comparison by someone who knows everything there is to know about it and doesn't care what you think or whether you get it. The technique is presented as an implementation of the theory, but real-world examples of situations requiring the application of that theory are scarce. Finally, the entire thing is written without a trace of wit or humor. I can't fault this book technically -- but I'm not confident of its ability to hold a student's attention.

A warning to compiler practitioners: This book is heavily based on mathematics. Ideas are expressed more often as algebra and theorems than as English prose. Therefore it's more of a resource for academic work than for actually implementing a compiler. If you are looking for such a formal treatment, perhaps as the basis of a thesis, I highly recommend this book. It's similar to the Dragon Book, but is more up to date and covers topics specific to imperative, functional, logic, and OO languages. But if you're simply interested in getting a working understanding of how to implement a compiler, I suggest one of the other highly rated works on Amazon. I think the other reviewer (only 2 reviews says something too) summarized it best: authoritative, informative, and dull.