Customer Reviews

Crafting a Compiler with C

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This book has a nice balance of theory and practical algorithms. There is enough detail to allow a (patient) reader to implement his own compiler tools, though like most other books on the subject, this book leaves you with the feeling that the area might have died about twenty years ago (no insult intended!); an update needed, to include OO languages, some treatment of the complexities associated with parsing modern languages, C++ etc. All things considered, still a great book, well worth the money.

I teach compiler construction and I personally hate the "Dragon book" because it is beyond the level of many students. Fischer and LeBlanc present most of the same material and they make it readable. Theirs was the first book to devote an entire chapter to symbol tables, the central data structure that all components of a compiler use. There should be a law mandate that compiler courses should use either this book or Thomas Parsons'.

This book is quite dense and requires some serious work to be understood properly. It is quite complete even if it is a bit old compared with the latest twists in compiler theory. It is a mix between theory and pratical implementation. This is its main strength and its main weakness: it is not a comprehensive theorical work on compilers neither a complete "pratical" tutorial. Anyway it is a good introduction for the (college-level) student who is willing to do some serious work.

This book covers a very difficult subject. It is intended for those programmers or students that really want to see what is going on under the hood. The majority of programmers today have no idea how things really work at this level. They are used to managed frameworks that do everything for them. In my professional opinion, that is great for rapid application development but the side effect is that it severely dumbs down the programmer. This book, on the other hand, is for those who are prepared to do some serious work. If you just want to create GUI applications for users in a quick fashion or even if you want to look at the C language because you are curious about it then this book is not for you.

This book is a well balanced combination of theory and practice and it is much more digestible than "The Dragon Book", in my opinion. For example, while I have found "The Dragon Book" a great resource for teaching college level students it feels too theoretical at times and difficult to follow. I have found that some readers of "The Dragon Book" get lost in all that theory and gradually lose interest. This book, on the other hand, is nicely balanced between theory and practice and many readers find it much more interesting. Even though there have been advances in compiler theory since this book was published, the underlying theory and practical examples still apply and I still find this book a great resource. I highly recommend this text to those programmers who really want to do some serious work and those who are interested in getting into the heart and basic essentials of Computer Science.

I have oredered this book overseas but the shipment was much faster than I expected. This is great book for whom looking for a good reference about compilers.