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Ronald Mak
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Writing Compilers and Interpreters 2nd Edition

by Ronald Mak (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 32 ratings
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There is a newer edition of this item:

Writing Compilers and Interpreters: A Software Engineering Approach
Writing Compilers and Interpreters: A Software Engineering Approach
$67.99
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Quickly master all the skills you need to build your own compilers and interpreters in C++

Whether you are a professional programmer who needs to write a compiler at work or a personal programmer who wants to write an interpreter for a language of your own invention, this book quickly gets you up and running with all the knowledge and skills you need to do it right. It cuts right to the chase with a series of skill-building exercises ranging in complexity from the basics of reading a program to advanced object-oriented techniques for building a compiler in C++.

Here's how it works:

Every chapter contains anywhere from one to three working utility programs that provide a firsthand demonstration of concepts discussed, and each chapter builds upon the preceding ones. You begin by learning how to read a program and produce a listing, deconstruct a program into tokens (scanning), and how to analyze it based on its syntax (parsing). From there, Ron Mak shows you step by step how to build an actual working interpreter and an interactive debugger. Once you've mastered those skills, you're ready to apply them to building a compiler that runs on virtually any desktop computer.

Visit the Wiley Computer Books Web page at: http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/
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  1. ISBN-10
    0471113530
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0471113539
  3. Edition
    2nd
  4. Publisher
    Wiley
  5. Publication date
    August 10, 1996
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.4 x 1.82 x 9.2 inches
  8. Print length
    864 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Grab hold of your C++ because here you'll learn how to use it to write compilers and interpreters--those programs that translate high-level computer code into machine-executable code. The only C++-based book on compilers and interpreters available, this revised and updated edition shows you the ABC's of reading and listing a program, breaking it into tokens, parsing it, and examining its syntax. Then it shows you how to build an actual interpreter, debugger, and finally, a compiler.

From the Back Cover

Quickly master all the skills you need to build your own compilers and interpreters in C++

Whether you are a professional programmer who needs to write a compiler at work or a personal programmer who wants to write an interpreter for a language of your own invention, this book quickly gets you up and running with all the knowledge and skills you need to do it right. It cuts right to the chase with a series of skill-building exercises ranging in complexity from the basics of reading a program to advanced object-oriented techniques for building a compiler in C++.

Here's how it works:

Every chapter contains anywhere from one to three working utility programs that provide a firsthand demonstration of concepts discussed, and each chapter builds upon the preceding ones. You begin by learning how to read a program and produce a listing, deconstruct a program into tokens (scanning), and how to analyze it based on its syntax (parsing). From there, Ron Mak shows you step by step how to build an actual working interpreter and an interactive debugger. Once you've mastered those skills, you're ready to apply them to building a compiler that runs on virtually any desktop computer.

Visit the Wiley Computer Books Web page at: http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 2nd edition (August 10, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 864 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0471113530
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0471113539
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.4 x 1.82 x 9.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

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Ronald Mak

Ronald Mak

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
32 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gabor Szauer
5.0 out of 5 stars The best introduction to compilers
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2012
Verified Purchase
I'm in the Game Development industry. I was assigned to creating an in-house scripting language for one of our games. I quickly ordered all the compiler / interpreter / scripting books i could find from the classic dragon book to beginning game scripting. After a week of reading book after book i was starting to get really worried, each text was way too abstract or so simple it had no relevance. Long behold, sitting at the bottom of my pile of books i found this gem. It's a god-send, i call it my scripting bible. I was able to read and understand the book in a few days and had the PASCAL compiler and interpreter up and running in about a week. After reading this text i was able to design and implement the scripting language i was asked to make with relative ease. My suggestion, get this book!

As an after-note i also purchased the first and third editions of the book after realizing how good it is. While they are both pretty interesting i find the second edition to be the best.
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Cannot find this information anywhere else.
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
Im not going to lie, this book is a harder read because compiler design and code is complicated stuff. What I love about this book is that you can find tons of books discussing theory, but this one walks you step by step through real code. Through out the book you follow the author as he writes a pascal compiler in c++. This is a one in a million book, and am so lucky to have found a paper copy.
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Elijah D
5.0 out of 5 stars Interpreters and compilers bite the dust
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2001
Verified Purchase
I used to think you had to be some kind of super human being to write a compiler.Guess what? I was wrong. If you buy this book and you have good c++ programming skills as well as knowledge of data structures(lists,trees etc) you are well on your way.
Ronald is the man!He breaks the code down into small objects and shows all the code with great insight into what the code is doing. Man, this is how to write a book on such a complex topic. Ronald really shows the benefits of OOP.
Now I feel very confident to take on any programming project. I have over come my fears. I can now get more advanced books on the subject.
10 people found this helpful
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ScientistInDC
1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written. Majority is source listing. conveys litte ideas. cryptic
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2009
Verified Purchase
Mr. Mak may have been a great coder, thinker and mentor at BroadVision and Apple. He, however, should not write any more books. He is a bad communicator. I'd rather see his talent used elsewhere.

The majority of this yellowpage thick book is the source listing. The book comments prior to listing the source snippet, rather than conveying the idea behind the construction.

If it intended to be tutorial, it is a bad, cryptic one. It it's meant to be something else, it's neither an overview nor a comprehensive reference. The content is unfocused.

I have an analogy: This book is like an unusable GUI written by a geek as opposed to the good one crafted by a cognitive scientist or HCI expert.
One person found this helpful
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Kaley36
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2012
Verified Purchase
The book was in great condition, and easy to understand. Even though the book foucses on writing compliers or interpreters for the pascal language, the concepts can be used to write more complicted pragramming lanugages such as C or C++.
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David Hunter
4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but repetative.
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2002
Verified Purchase
Effectivly, you purchase this text to learn how to
write compilers and interpreters. This book does this well.
The shadow of this, is the fact that 50-60% of this book
is repetitious code.
Hastily, you're thrown into concepts that help to define
how a compiler works. Details covered range from functions of
a compiler, down to function blocks of descrete code.
Exceptionally thurough, this book is written in a very linear fashion. Almost as if 'A to Z', you're taken from basic line indexing, through assembly output for x86. Providing you have the patience to properly work through this book, once you finish, you will definately have the tools to write your own compiler.
Overall, this is a pretty good book. I would not say great because it does not keep a steady 'beat' with its steps. Fast and slow, it can be disorientating for some people. Rather than
expending pages upon pages of code, I would like to see a CD included with the book. Code would be replaced by simplified function blocks to help speed the process. (To *really* grasp what the author is doing, you have to deciper the exact details
of their code.)
8 people found this helpful
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Dima
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome !
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2015
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Delivered as described !
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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. J. Youngman
1.0 out of 5 stars Bought it. Sent it back.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2008
Verified Purchase
About 75% of this book is simply a printout of the code. There is not very much expository text, the compiler code is left to speak for itself. However, a number of features of the book annoyed me. Firstly the book uses an incredibly arcane dialect of C++. The author actually does this:

#define false 0
#define true 1
#define bool int

(bool could be a typedef, I forget).

I concluded pretty rapidly that the book was not going to be useful for me.
4 people found this helpful
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