Engineering a Compiler (Hardcover)

~ Keith Cooper (Author), Linda Torczon (Author) "The role of computers in daily life is growing each year..." (more)
Key Phrases: precall sequence, address polynomial, distinct live ranges, Factor Term, Term Expr, Term Term (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Engineering a Compiler is a rich survey and exposition of the important techniques necessary to build a modern compiler.
-Jim Larus, Microsoft Research -- Review

Review

Keith Cooper and Linda Torczon are leading compilers researchers who have also built several state-of-the-art compilers. This book adeptly spans both worlds, by explaining both time-tested techniques and new algorithms, and by providing practical advice on engineering and constructing a compiler. Engineering a Compiler is a rich survey and exposition of the important techniques necessary to build a modern compiler.
-Jim Larus, Microsoft Research

A wonderful introduction to the theory, practice, and lore of modern compilers. Cooper and Torczon convey the simple joys of this subject that
follow from the elegant interplay between compilation and the rest of computer science. If you're looking for an end-to-end tour of compiler
construction annotated with a broad range of practical experiences, this is the book.
-Michael D. Smith, Harvard University

Modern compilers have played critical roles in areas such as software development tools, application performance, and processor design. This book has done an excellent job of illustrating various state-of-the-art technologies for an advanced compiler, in particular, optimization and code generation, the core of modern compilers. Compilers have evolved into complicated software and what makes a good compiler largely lies in the wisdom of engineering during design and development. The readers of this book can certainly learn how to construct a modern compiler with various engineering trade-offs.

-Roy Ju, Senior Researcher,Microprocessor Research Labs, Intel Corp.

As researchers, the authors have made major contributions to the literature and as teachers, they have produced leaders in the field. The combination is reflected in a book that is rich with the insight of great research and written with the clarity of experienced teachers. The result is an outstanding text.

-Steve Blackburn, The Australian National University

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 801 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (November 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155860698X
• ISBN-13: 978-1558606982
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,307 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super compiler text!, February 21, 2005

By	Jos van Roosmalen (The Netherlands, Europe) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is really a super compiler text. It is also one of the most recent compiler books you can buy.

First of all this is a theoretical book. If you read the title 'Engineering a compiler' as 'Coding/Building a compiler' you would be disappointed! So, if you're looking for a learing-by-coding book, this is not for you (but I have some recommendations at the end of this review in the latest paragraph). The difference with most of the other theoretical books is that this book is not a dry text. It has also a nice layout. It gives plenty of examples, and all topics are well connected to each other. It's a pleasure to read for not native English people, so native English people can read it pretty fast.

This book read like a novel.. It does contain enough diagrams, tables, etc. but not too much (crowded), and everything is well explained.

You can read this book as a compiler introduction book. But I can only recommend this to B.Sc/M.Sc Computer Science students (like me). You don't need to have a M.Sc in Mathematics to understand this text, (all the math, eg. liveness graphs are well explained), but you will understand everything better if you have some background in algorithms (design), pseudocode, etc. like you gained during your B.Sc program. People without formal computer science education I would recommend to read a practical book first (see at the end of this review), because you may find else this text too theoretical.

This book focus on code optimizations. According to the authors (and me) compiler front ends (scanning/parsing/etc) are commodities today, and the backend (codegeneration) is where the difference is made nowadays. So if you're looking for a introduction text into compiler optimization this book is for you!

If you're looking for a more practical book I advice you to read 'Programming Language Processors in Java' from Watt & Brown. In that book you learn to build a nice stack virtual machine in Java with 'advanced features' like records (structs), procedures/functions, arrays and so on. That book is a good companion for 'Engineering a Compiler' to give you some practical insight. If you're looking for a Language Design book I advice you to look at 'Programming Language Pragmatics'. Both books are worth the money...

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great starter guide to writing a compiler, June 9, 2005

By	Todd King (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I recently used this book to supplement the Dragon book in a Compilers course. I found this book so much easier to read and understand. They do a great job of laying out the basics and introducing you to compiler design.

I also liked how they seemed to keep an open mind about which intermediate representation is best to use. They discuss the pros and cons of graphical IRs vs Linear IRs, and let you decide which best fits your needs.

Their open mindedness ended when it came to optimization though. I got the impression that the authors consider SSA (static single assignment) form to be the silver bullet of optimization. Almost all of the optimizations they discuss in this book rely on your IR being in SSA form! I agree that SSA form does indeed make many optimizations much easier, but there is a very high initial cost involved in converting to and from SSA form. In there defense they spend almost an entire chapter on how to do these conversions.

So to sum up, this book does a great job of introducing you to compiler design. It is well written and very easy to understand. It also does a good job of discussing different compiler design choices and their pros and cons. The only short coming of this book is that the entire optimization discussion is revolves around SSA form.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'd rather call it "A guide for engineering a compiler", September 2, 2004

By	H. Kim (Worcester, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book deals with all the issues you will face while engineering a MODERN compiler. Each subject is rather a brief instroduction than a thorough discussion, but detailed enough to give readers a good introduction working as a good pointer when you need a more detailed information.

Also the author tries very hard to cover as much subjects as possible you have to deal with when you design a language and implment a compiler for it.

I'd use this book not as a thorough compiler algorithm bible but as a guide to follow when implementing my compiler.
By following each chapter in the book, at least you will know what problems you should slove. If the problem is simple enough, the solution is in the book. For more complicated problems, you gotta dig into the internet.

In my opinion, this book is the best compiler engineering guide ever I read.