Modern Compiler Implementation in Java [Hardcover]

Andrew W. Appel (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521583888 | ISBN-13: 978-0521583886 | Publication Date: December 13, 1997

Last year you may have seen the Modern Compiler Implementation in C: Basic Techniques (1997) which was the preliminary edition of our new 1998 textbook, Modern Compiler Implementation in C. The new, expanded version of this textbook describes all phases of a modern compiler: lexical analysis, parsing, abstract syntax, semantic actions, intermediate representations, instruction selection via tree matching, dataflow analysis, graph-coloring register allocation, and runtime systems. It includes good coverage of current techniques in code generation and register allocation, as well as functional and object-oriented languages, that are missing from most books. In addition, more advanced chapters are now included so that it can be used as the basis for two-semester or graduate course. The most accepted and successful techniques are described in a concise way, rather than as an exhaustive catalog of every possible variant. Detailed descriptions of the interfaces between modules of a compiler are illustrated with actual C header files. The first part of the book, Fundamentals of Compilation, is suitable for a one-semester first course in compiler design. The second part, Advanced Topics, which includes the advanced chapters, covers the compilation of object-oriented and functional languages, garbage collection, loop optimizations, SSA form, loop scheduling, and optimization for cache-memory hierarchies. A unique feature of the book is a well designed compiler implementation project in Java, including front-end and 'high-tech' back-end phases, so that students can build a complete working compiler in one semester. Accompanying support software is available.

Editorial Reviews

Review

' ... this book is a pleasure to read and study. If you want to refresh or update your knowledge of compiler implementation topics, this book is warmly.' Arie van Deursen, Science of Computer Programming

Book Description

The new, expanded version of this textbook describes all phases of a modern compiler, including current techniques in code generation and register allocation, for imperative, functional and object-oriented languages. In a concise and practical way the author describes the fundamentals of compilation and then moves on to advanced topics such as SSA form, loop scheduling, and optimization for cache-memory hierarchies. A unique feature is a compiler implementation project in Java, including front-end and 'high-tech' back-end phases.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 558 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521583888
• ISBN-13: 978-0521583886
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #806,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Compilers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

369 of 442 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ALL HOPE ABANDON, YE WHO ENTER HERE., December 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Compiler Implementation in Java (Hardcover)

I held the accursed object with both hands and examined it closely. It felt small and weak There was a change after I finished the exam. Suddenly what had once seemed an insurmountable obstacle had been reduced to a collection of molecules. Something small and without worth, a mere shadow of the former imposition. Yes, I held a mere object in my hands. Something, which would no longer hold, power over me. I was suddenly struck by a tremendous urge to exert my power over it. I envisioned myself beating the book against tress and concrete benches, hurling it baseball-pitch style at brick walls, hitting it with a ten-pound sledge at full tilt, drop-kicking it off of high buildings, tearing it cover-from-cover with my bare hands.
But most importantly, most eerily satisfying, were the visions of setting the terrible book on its side, allowing the pages to ruffle gently under the cover,-and igniting a book of matches underneath the pages. I longed to see it burn. I wanted to, through my own volition and physical power, reduce it. O book most foul, into the optimally entropic form, then relieve my bladder onto its smoldering ashes. I could think of nothing more satisfying.

I'm not entirely sure why I didn't, just then and there, outside the Wetherill Laboratory of Chemistry, satisfy my urges and just destroy the beast. Perhaps I'm not entirely certain that my travail with 'modern compiler imple- mentation in Java" is over. I won't be certain of that until I stand with a report card in hand. But the blind rage continues.

It sits on my shelf until then, forever staring at me with a bright red cover and insulting lower-case sans- serif typeface, the author's name 'Appel" an invocation of the original sin which lies within. Every time I see it there, I have feelings of hatred, angst, depression, and bitterness. I feel the bile rise in my throat and the heartburn of a dozen sleepless nights staring into its murky depths at the merest glance. The angrily pacing tiger on the front cover stands as a warning to all who would journey within of the dangers which await. Inside the front cover, scrawled in all capital letters in indelible black marker by a shaky hand, lie the words "ALL HOPE ABANDON, YE WHO ENTER HERE."

Apparently, the student who possessed it before me shares my enmity. It is truly a foul thing, an ancient, unknowable evil. By all rights and privileges, it should be written in virgin blood on human skin and bound with the tortured souls of those who dared to face it and lost. I know what must be done. It must be struck from the universe. It must be, for the good of all mankind, rendered forevermore unreadable, so it may not torment the others who, unprepared as I was four months ago, would even briefly consider themselves strong enough to face what lies within. Fools! None may face the tiger and win! Those who survive the course are never again the same person as before the course. Those who live to tell of their encounter with the book rarely talk about it, and do so in hushed tones, fearful of its horrid consequences. I cannot abide this world with the nowledge that it still exists.

Take thy interference graph from out my heart, and take thy intermediate representation from off my bookshelf.

TAKE THY INTERFERENCE GRAPH FROM OUT MY HEART, AND TAKE THY INTERMEDIATE REPRESENTATION FROM OFF MY BOOKSHELF.

quath the Tiger, 'Only if you passed.'

Patrick Fitzgerald, Senior, School of Science, Purdue University

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A reasonable undergraduate compilers text, August 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Compiler Implementation in Java (Hardcover)

I find this to be one of the better choices currently available as a textbook for an undergraduate compilers course. As it promises, it presents a modern view of compiler construction, and many difficult new techniques are covered fairly clearly. The book is particularly appealing because it provides a fairly explicit cookbook for how to construct a compiler from start to finish, and the different parts of the book fit together much better than in, say, the Dragon Book. It also contains good material on implementing more advanced language features.

The book has a number of weaknesses that have been touched on by other reviewers. The number of errors in the text is larger than it should be. The explanations of certain topics are weak: LR parsing and dataflow equations come to mind. In general, topics are covered in only slightly more depth than a class lecture on the topic would reach. This makes the book less useful as a reference after the course ends.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How someone else's compiler works piece by piece..., September 25, 2002

By 

"mikem9" (Waltham, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modern Compiler Implementation in Java (Hardcover)

This book does show you how a compiler is implemented, literally. The author has a compiler already coded which he breaks down piece by piece and shows you how the pieces work.

Unfortunately, instead of only giving you what you need to know for a specific piece, alot of future material is added too soon because it's already in the code. What would've been good is to trim out that stuff and give examples of code that wasn't part of the complete compiler but explained a specific point and only that point.

Too much time is spent explaining pre-existing code that implements the modules in a ready-built compiler, and not enough time is spent describing what each module in a compiler is supposed to do and how you'd do it yourself or alternative ways of implementing functionality.

If only there was a compiler book that was halfway between this one and the Dragon book...