Compiler Construction (International Computer Science Series) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A refreshing antidote to heavy theoretical tomes, this book is a concise, practical guide to modern compiler design and construction by an acknowledged master. Readers are taken step-by-step through each stage of compiler design, using the simple yet powerful method of recursive descent to create a compiler for Oberon-0, a subset of the author's Oberon language. The hands-on, pragmatic approach makes the book equally attractive for project-oriented courses in compiler design and for software engineers wishing to develop their skills in system software. A disk provided with the book gives full listings of the Oberon-0 compiler and associated tools. There is a bug in the installation of this disk, to correct please do the following: *Open the file install.inf in a text editor (e.g. Notepad), this file is found in the win_sys directory. *Scroll down until you find a section marked (files), this is the second last section and is very close to the bottom of the file. *Find the line readme.wri =$I, 9000,0,Information on Oberon, 0,0 and change it so that it reads readme.txt =$I, 9000,0,Information on Oberon, 0,0

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub (Sd); Pap/Dsk edition (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201403536
• ISBN-13: 978-0201403534
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,881,862 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short, good introduction to the topic., March 25, 2000

By	Benoit Marchal (Namur, Belgique) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I enjoyed reading this book. I have read several books on the topic and this is one of my favourite introduction.

Obviously it is not as comprehensive as "Compilers Principles, Techniques and Tools" but in 180 pages, you'll learn the basics of compiler constructions.

The book uses Oberon as the sample language. I had no problem with the choice because Oberon is close to other popular languages, starting with Pascal. And yet I confess I never wrote a single line of Oberon code...

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Commented source of a non-trivial compiler on 176 pages, June 12, 1998

By A Customer

For each of his major languages (Pascal, Modula, Oberon), Wirth wrote a new edition of his Compiler Construction book. In this book, he introduces to Compiler Construction in general and explains a particular implementation of a compiler for a small language (Oberon0).

The current edition has been extended in some ways (the target RISC architecture is explained much better now). I have read all three books on Compiler Construction by Wirth (even typed in the source of the first book on PL0) and many others by him. I still like his books although his style is a bit formal. Fortunately, the implementation issues keep him down to earth. This book is still the most demanding he wrote. Except for computer science students, which may be happy to get a worked out example in less than 200 pages.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a teaching course in Compiler construction, September 3, 2007

By	Jose Portillo (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Professor Wirth made an interesting introduction course in Compiler construction. He follows the same kind descriptive stile he used on his legendary book "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs" developing a PL/O virtual machine, P-code, and compiler.

This time he do the same, but now using a RISC ideal machine similar (on its programming model) to Patterson & Hennessy DLX processor (Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approarch, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach). The RISC machine is beautiful and basic. An OBERON program module implementing an Interpreter for this RISC machine is included.

The book cover basic topics like: BNF, a reference to N. Chomsky formal description of languages, and compiler architecture (front-end, back-end).

OBERON programming language is similar to Pascal.

I recommend very much to expose you to basic programming environments like this, as a complement to your normal work with new development technologies like .NET framework and Java framework.

Also, I recommend you the following self-instruction path:

1) Computer Organization and Design, Revised Printing, Third Edition, Third Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer ... Series in Computer Architecture and Design)

2) Compiler Construction (International Computer Science Series)

3) The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1, Fascicle 1: MMIX -- A RISC Computer for the New Millennium (Art of Computer Programming)

Another good intro to computer organization and general assembly language programming is: Structured Computer Organization (5th Edition)