Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Introductory Compiler Text
Review: This is a comprehensive and easy to understand text. It covers all the fundamental stages of compiler design, with plenty of explanation (both practical and theoretical). It doesn't exhaustively cover every conceivable topic, but it does leave you with a good taste of what's involved. Of course, it is not a book for beginning programmers, and there are very few code examples. Judging by the comments of some reviewers, I would suspect that they gave poor reviews because they lacked the prerequisite background (familiarity with a good HLL like C, data structures, mathematical background etc). As with any 'advanced' topic in computer science, there is quite a lot expected from you. Upon first reading, some topics occasionally seem overwhelming. Welcome to Earth. This is where your library card comes in. Do a little research and then come back to this text; you'll find that it is well organized and extremely clear. If you want a cookbook this book isn't for you. If you want a solid understanding of compiler fundamentals then this book is your best bet.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare for compiler writers
Review: This is really a terrific book. It covers every phase of constructing a compiler, including both design and implementation issues. The text is well-written, comprehensive, and gives a pretty good mix of theory and practical information. There is a lot of theory involved, of course. Others have said this, but I will repeat it. This is not a cookbook. If you want to get the most out of it, you should have a good grasp of a HLL (the examples are in C), as well as some mathematical background and a familiarity with CS topics like automata theory and data structures. People looking for a cut and paste approach to compiler construction will be disappointed. Those who are genuinely interested in compiler construction and who are willing to invest some time and thought will not be.
Rating:
Summary: The best compiler writer reference book
Review: This is simply the BEST reference book for compiler writers. The authors did an excellent work writing this book; all the features of a compiler are explained in depth. I suggest this book along the "lex & yacc" book by Levine and "A retargetable C compiler: design and implementation" by Fraser and Hanson.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is the most disorganized text book I've ever read in English.That's right ; it covers all the aspects for designing a compiler but the order of the subjects given are horrible.For example the author first tries to define a subject in one section,then mysteriously he gives up and begins to tell another subject.Later you are faced with the unfinished subject in some other section but usually that's completely same as the previous section.
But the most important carelessness here is the lack of the definitions of the terms.You are faced with lots of terms while trying to understand the subject but those terms are usually not well-defined or they are defined with some other sick-defined terms.Which is from scientific point of view- a shame.There seem to be details everywhere but you never feel mastering the compiler thing because of the crumble.
Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A must for aspiring compiler gurus!
Review: Very comprehensive and still up-to-date. Clearly written and logically presented, and a good reference book after you've read it. Not for beginning programmers, but essential information for long-ball hitters.
Rating: 
Summary: Trivial, non-constructive, hard-to-follow, terrible
Review: What can you say about a book that has 41+ reviews, and all with close to perfect marks?
I bought this book not as it required so by almost any and all classes that teach about compiler design, but because I was interested in compilers and didn't have a chance to take class as part of my degree. It's a great book. Explains things well, and there are enough supporting material on the web that you can do a self paste study on your own and still get a lot out of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Yet another reviewer
Review: What can you say about a book that has 41+ reviews, and all with close to perfect marks?
I bought this book not as it required so by almost any and all classes that teach about compiler design, but because I was interested in compilers and didn't have a chance to take class as part of my degree. It's a great book. Explains things well, and there are enough supporting material on the web that you can do a self paste study on your own and still get a lot out of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great technical content; okay use of English
Review: With such a book that gets so many rave reviews, you really need to keep a level head so that you don't get sucked into all the hype. I don't have anything to praise that hasn't been said before (with respect to the book's technical content). However, I do wish that the authors had paid more attention to their use of English throughout. I agree with the other reviewer who said that it seems that authors have an excellent grasp of compiler theory, but not such a great grasp of the English language. Many times I have been left scratching my head, not because I couldn't understand the technical concepts, but rather because I was misled by the surrounding text and felt that it was not precise. Sometimes, I can't decide whether a bit of text is a typo or is correct. To top it off, there is no offical list of errata.
Rating: 
Summary: Ahh, the "Dragon Book"
Review: You can hardly search the internet for compiler books without seeing the "Dragon Book" rear its head. Intrigued by its reputation as the authority (not to mention being very hard to read,) I had to buy it. This book is very theoretical! That may be good or bad, depending on how used you are to handling theory. It is well organized. The authors break the compiler into front end and back end, and then further into symbol table, lexer, parser, semantics, intermediate code generation, code generation, and code optimization. There are chapters dedicated to each. I didn't read the whole book (so I'm still a mere mortal,) only the recommended introductory sections followed by some browsing. This was out of personal interest - not for a class. By the time I was through chapter 7 or so, I sat down and started planning a [cheesy] Pascal compiler (they give the grammar as a project.) I'm not done yet - heh - but I haven't been frustrated by anything the book hasn't covered yet. Therefore, I can testify that this book has really guided me well. However, like I said, if you space out in the presence of pure crystalline theory, then this book is not for you. Usually the first 3 sections of a chapter are 100% theory, then the "how to" section, followed by advanced theory. It may help if you have taken some courses in abstract algebras - I'm not kidding! Also, a (the) major flaw this book has is the mysteriously missing pages of code. There is no complete compiler (of anything significant) to study (which is why it gets 4 instead of 5 stars.) The only thing close is a 5 page infix to postfix translator written in archaic C. This book gives you the tools, not the answers. Be warned. Still, I recommend it to the dauntless and couragous... dragon slayers. [Hack-snort]
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