Modern Compiler Design

Rating:
Summary: Requires additional references
Review: I bought this book as an introduction to Compiler Design and to that end I have found it quite useful. The material is dense, so expect to have to re-read chapters quite often. Also, I have found it necessary to supplement this book with additional resources to fully understand what Grune is attempting to explain, particularly with chapter 3, which covers attribute grammars. The book's english can be poor sometimes so expect to have to back-track over convulted sentences. Overall, however, this book succeeds in being useful as an introduction to the theory. The authors skip implementation details, so if you are expecting to be able to actually write a compiler when you are done, you are going to be needing additional sources.

Pros: 1)great introduction to theory and maintains enough detail in each section to keep you interested. 2) Book is organized well. Each chapter represents the next step in compiler design. 3) This book covers theory, not implementation...it does not bind itself to one particular language

Cons: 1) Expect to check-out or buy additional reading to supplement this book. 2) The english often leaves something to be desired. 3) The excercises at the end of each chapter were obviously just "thrown-in" at the end. They are quite poor.

Rating:
Summary: Requires additional references
Review: I bought this book as an introduction to Compiler Design and to that end I have found it quite useful. The material is dense, so expect to have to re-read chapters quite often. Also, I have found it necessary to supplement this book with additional resources to fully understand what Grune is attempting to explain, particularly with chapter 3, which covers attribute grammars. The book's english can be poor sometimes so expect to have to back-track over convulted sentences. Overall, however, this book succeeds in being useful as an introduction to the theory. The authors skip implementation details, so if you are expecting to be able to actually write a compiler when you are done, you are going to be needing additional sources.

Pros: 1)great introduction to theory and maintains enough detail in each section to keep you interested. 2) Book is organized well. Each chapter represents the next step in compiler design. 3) This book covers theory, not implementation...it does not bind itself to one particular language

Cons: 1) Expect to check-out or buy additional reading to supplement this book. 2) The english often leaves something to be desired. 3) The excercises at the end of each chapter were obviously just "thrown-in" at the end. They are quite poor.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Book, geared towards intermediate to advanced readers
Review: If you are looking for a first book on this subject then this is not the book for you. Instead get the dragon book on Compiler Design published by Addison Wesley. This book is very good at filling in implementation details, but you may get lost if you don't know the buzz words already.

At the end of the book there is a good introduction to the theory parallel compiler design.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Book, geared towards intermediate to advanced readers
Review: If you are looking for a first book on this subject then this is not the book for you. Instead get the dragon book on Compiler Design published by Addison Wesley. This book is very good at filling in implementation details, but you may get lost if you don't know the buzz words already.

At the end of the book there is a good introduction to the theory parallel compiler design.

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: Overall, this is an excellent book for compilers. It covers a broad range of concepts. On think that I like is that the authors didn't take the very popular approach of "hey, let's write a small subset of Pascal". They actually only covers the concepts. So, this is not a beginner's book.

Algorithms are written in "english pseudo-code" and, altought I tought it'd be a good idea, it ended up being harder to read than the "usual pseudo-code" (like in the Dragon book).

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: Overall, this is an excellent book for compilers. It covers a broad range of concepts. On think that I like is that the authors didn't take the very popular approach of "hey, let's write a small subset of Pascal". They actually only covers the concepts. So, this is not a beginner's book.

Algorithms are written in "english pseudo-code" and, altought I tought it'd be a good idea, it ended up being harder to read than the "usual pseudo-code" (like in the Dragon book).

Rating:
Summary: Excellent textbook
Review: This is the textbook my class used for the compiler design class, and I must say it is excellent. Every technique is well expained, and its a lot easier to follow than "the dragon book". Best book I've read on the subject, it will get you from the start of languages design to a working interpreter in no time. You must have a solid base in coding and computer sciences tough, the book loose no time with petty issues.