Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools, known to professors, students, and developers worldwide as the "Dragon Book," is available in a new edition. Every chapter has been completely revised to reflect developments in software engineering, programming languages, and computer architecture that have occurred since 1986, when the last edition published. The authors, recognizing that few readers will ever go on to construct a compiler, retain their focus on the broader set of problems faced in software design and software development.
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition)
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Book Description
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About the Author
Alfred V. Aho is Lawrence Gussman Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. Professor Aho has won several awards including the Great Teacher Award for 2003 from the Society of Columbia Graduates and the IEEE John von Neumann Medal. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the ACM and IEEE.
Monica S. Lam is a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, was the Chief Scientist at Tensilica and the founding CEO of moka5. She led the SUIF project which produced one of the most popular research compilers, and pioneered numerous compiler techniques used in industry.
Ravi Sethi launched the research organization in Avaya and is president of Avaya Labs. Previously, he was a senior vice president at Bell Labs in Murray Hill and chief technical officer for communications software at Lucent Technologies. He has held teaching positions at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Arizona, and has taught at Princeton University and Rutgers. He is a fellow of the ACM.
Jeffrey Ullman is CEO of Gradiance and a Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. His research interests include database theory, database integration, data mining, and education using the information infrastructure. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the ACM, and winner of the Karlstrom Award and Knuth Prize.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
137 of 146 people found the following review helpful
By Jason Evans
Format:Hardcover
I spent some serious quality time with the first edition (the "red dragon book"), in three main episodes over the past dozen years: 1) undergraduate compilers class, 2) industry project, and 3) parser generator implementation. During all three episodes, I was disappointed in various ways, though there is no denying that the book contains a wealth of information. As an undergraduate, I found the book somewhat impenetrable. When in industry, I found the book too abstract. When implementing a parser generator, I discovered that the book excludes important research results with regard to LR parser generation. It is the last disappointment that I will focus on.
The book presents parser generation in layers of increasing complexity, from SLR to LR to LALR, where LALR is presented as the penultimate algorithm, though LALR parsers can only handle a subset of the grammars that LR can handle. The justification for this is that the original Knuth LR algorithm is intractable for large grammars. However, an efficient, fully correct, approach for LR parser generation was published in 1977, and on top of that it appears easier to implement than efficient LALR parser generation! The red dragon book's original authors simply cannot have been unaware of this research result, but I suspect that they elected to warm over the "green dragon book" (published in 1977) rather than incorporate the state of the art as of 1986 into the "red dragon book". Now here we are another 20 years later, and as near as I can tell from reading through available online information, the "purple dragon book" is perpetuating this omission. The result of the red dragon book is that we have an entire generation of computer scientists who have been mislead to think that LALR is somehow superior to LR, and the purple dragon book is setting things up for yet another generation to be mislead.
The book presents parser generation in layers of increasing complexity, from SLR to LR to LALR, where LALR is presented as the penultimate algorithm, though LALR parsers can only handle a subset of the grammars that LR can handle. The justification for this is that the original Knuth LR algorithm is intractable for large grammars. However, an efficient, fully correct, approach for LR parser generation was published in 1977, and on top of that it appears easier to implement than efficient LALR parser generation! The red dragon book's original authors simply cannot have been unaware of this research result, but I suspect that they elected to warm over the "green dragon book" (published in 1977) rather than incorporate the state of the art as of 1986 into the "red dragon book". Now here we are another 20 years later, and as near as I can tell from reading through available online information, the "purple dragon book" is perpetuating this omission. The result of the red dragon book is that we have an entire generation of computer scientists who have been mislead to think that LALR is somehow superior to LR, and the purple dragon book is setting things up for yet another generation to be mislead.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By Erich Blume
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Aho, Ullman et. al's "Compilers" is a fantastic book and well worth studying for all computer programmers - implementing a compiler compiler will yield tangental benefits to anyone who writes programs for a living or for fun.
However, the Amazon Kindle edition of this book is *awful*. First and foremost, I discovered at least one error in an algorithm that is not present in the standard edition that causes the book's proposed algorithms to be incorrect (in this case, it was algorithm 4.31 - in step 1, you should compute FIRST(alpha), not FIRST(A).)
On top of that, there are spacing issues and font issues throughout the book. It appears that in many places where the standard edition had a word separated across lines, the Kindle edition merely has that word split in two with a space between its halves. Worse, the font choice used to typeset algorithms doesn't easily distinguish many greek lowercase letters from their modern English equivalents, the result being that it is fiendishly difficult to understand some algorithms (the book uses greek letters to indicate a 'sentential form', so they appear a *lot* and tend to be right next to their modern equivalents.)
In other words, I would give Compilers (the Standard edition) a 5/5 (or maybe a 4/5 - it could stand to use a bit more real-world code), but this Kindle edition is rubbish and you SHOULD NOT BUY.
However, the Amazon Kindle edition of this book is *awful*. First and foremost, I discovered at least one error in an algorithm that is not present in the standard edition that causes the book's proposed algorithms to be incorrect (in this case, it was algorithm 4.31 - in step 1, you should compute FIRST(alpha), not FIRST(A).)
On top of that, there are spacing issues and font issues throughout the book. It appears that in many places where the standard edition had a word separated across lines, the Kindle edition merely has that word split in two with a space between its halves. Worse, the font choice used to typeset algorithms doesn't easily distinguish many greek lowercase letters from their modern English equivalents, the result being that it is fiendishly difficult to understand some algorithms (the book uses greek letters to indicate a 'sentential form', so they appear a *lot* and tend to be right next to their modern equivalents.)
In other words, I would give Compilers (the Standard edition) a 5/5 (or maybe a 4/5 - it could stand to use a bit more real-world code), but this Kindle edition is rubbish and you SHOULD NOT BUY.
48 of 55 people found the following review helpful
By A Student
Format:Hardcover
This book has the reputation as being THE book on compilers. I'll grant that. It covers everything and the kitchen sink, at a theoretical level. This is NOT the book on implementation details. Without prior exposure to the basic principals and problems in compiler implemenation, it can be difficult to see why the theory, as presented, is relavent. Why is left recursion bad? What good are handles? How is the type system significant? How do symbol tables relate to scoping? This stuffs in there, but if one is not expecting it, one won't appreciate the terse presentation. But that's the kind of learner I am, I have to know why something is relavent before I get it. So, I don't recommend this book as a first book on languages and compilers.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Reference
Contains a fair amount of abstract mathematics in order to explain different algorithms for compilers. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Himanshu Narayana
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aho et al declared 'awesome'
Aho et al is the standard textbook on this subject. I bought this book for my son - he has not read it all yet (!!) however what he has read he has described as 'awesome'.
Published 1 month ago by Greg Wallace
4.0 out of 5 stars
A classic text in computer science pedagogy
"The Dragon Book" is the classic academic text on compilers, parsers, and related technologies. It's a bit dense in parts, and you'll need to "follow along" writing your own code... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Keith Beckman
2.0 out of 5 stars
OK - if you already understand compilers
I used "The Dragon" book in a first semester compiler course many years ago. I found it very hard to learn from the book. Read more
Published 13 months ago by C. Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars
The definite book for compilers
Any serious computer scientist should at least read this book - if not own it. It covers all different aspects of a compiler and even more in relatively small space. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Yiannis
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too hard for beginners
Simply put, the "Dragon Book" has not proven to be an effective educational tool for me. Our compilers class requires me to learn a fair amount of material directly from the text... Read more
Published on April 26, 2011 by Alex Pritchard
2.0 out of 5 stars
Full of typos
This book is full of typos. Some of the examples are wrong and their explanations just make them even more confusing.
For instance, example 1. Read more
For instance, example 1. Read more
Published on January 24, 2011 by xHdx
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, in-depth coverage -- very readable
I grabbed a copy of this along with Dick Grune's "Parsing Techniques", and was very satisfied.
The text is very readable, and the diagrams are useful and descriptive and... Read more
The text is very readable, and the diagrams are useful and descriptive and... Read more
Published on October 3, 2009 by Jesse Taylor
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Words "Gradiance (pkg)" is worthy for some peaple.
In Japan this book 2nd. edition translate in japaneise language recently. From "SAIENSUSHA" means "Science Pub.".
I red amazon.com review about this book 2nd. editon. Read more
I red amazon.com review about this book 2nd. editon. Read more
Published on September 8, 2009 by tak lisper
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding textbook, great for reference
I wrote a complete complier as a semester project 30 years ago using the Green Dragon book. (I had written a parser generator the semester before, otherwise I could never have... Read more
Published on July 6, 2009 by IBuyMoreBooksThanICanEverRead
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