3 ms·

Why, if I may ask? My memories of that book are mostly positive.

by lzm 17y ago

brg 17y ago
I am speaking from memory, and perhaps should revisit the text to see if these same criticism still hold years out. As part of a series, "Modern Compiler Implementation in..." the C version came across as a poor translation. I would say this is akin to Sedgewick's earlier version of his "Algorithms in..." texts, of which one was high quality but the translations were not. Where Sedgewick seems to have first written in Pascal, Appel seems to have first written in Java. The constructs that Appel places on top of C to make implementation discussions easier did not help. While they attempted to make it object oriented, they made it messy and not "C" friendly. For the basics, I kept referring to the Dragon book for better explanations then were provided there. I did not find it encouraging that this book drove me to the text it is trying to out-date. I had bought it for the last half, since texts on modern compiler design are rare (functional languages, optimizations, garbage collection). But I recall the algorithms discussion to be subpar in that it was neither clear nor deep. I still like the idea of structuring a compiler book around the semester long project of building one from the ground up. However, I think both the Tiger language and this text could have used another year of revision.
- silentbicycle 17y ago
  > Appel seems to have first written in Java. Given that Appel works on SML/NJ, I think the ML one is probably a better choice. (That one's really good, IHMO. Haven't read the other two.) There aren't a whole lot of books specifically about GC, but I really like Richard Jones's _Garbage Collection: Algorithms for Automatic Dynamic Memory Management_.
- eru 17y ago
  Interesting. I also tried reading the Dragon Book, but I found it quite stale. I really enjoyed "Modern Compiler Design" (http://www.few.vu.nl/~dick/MCD.html http://www.few.vu.nl/~dick/MCD.html). They also talk about implementing functional languages. And if you already know how to write a lexer and a parser, "The Implementation of Functional Programming Languages" by Simon Peyton Jones is worth reading.
  - loup-vaillant 17y ago
    I fond that "implementing functional languages: a tutorial" is even easier. Now, these books are not for eager languages.

Why, if I may ask? My memories of that book are mostly positive.

by lzm 17y ago

Why, if I may ask? My memories of that book are mostly positive.

brg 17y ago

I am speaking from memory, and perhaps should revisit the text to see if these same criticism still hold years out. As part of a series, "Modern Compiler Implementation in..." the C version came across as a poor translation. I would say this is akin to Sedgewick's earlier version of his "Algorithms in..." texts, of which one was high quality but the translations were not. Where Sedgewick seems to have first written in Pascal, Appel seems to have first written in Java. The constructs that Appel places on top of C to make implementation discussions easier did not help. While they attempted to make it object oriented, they made it messy and not "C" friendly. For the basics, I kept referring to the Dragon book for better explanations then were provided there. I did not find it encouraging that this book drove me to the text it is trying to out-date. I had bought it for the last half, since texts on modern compiler design are rare (functional languages, optimizations, garbage collection). But I recall the algorithms discussion to be subpar in that it was neither clear nor deep. I still like the idea of structuring a compiler book around the semester long project of building one from the ground up. However, I think both the Tiger language and this text could have used another year of revision.

silentbicycle 17y ago
> Appel seems to have first written in Java. Given that Appel works on SML/NJ, I think the ML one is probably a better choice. (That one's really good, IHMO. Haven't read the other two.) There aren't a whole lot of books specifically about GC, but I really like Richard Jones's _Garbage Collection: Algorithms for Automatic Dynamic Memory Management_.
eru 17y ago
Interesting. I also tried reading the Dragon Book, but I found it quite stale. I really enjoyed "Modern Compiler Design" (http://www.few.vu.nl/~dick/MCD.html http://www.few.vu.nl/~dick/MCD.html). They also talk about implementing functional languages. And if you already know how to write a lexer and a parser, "The Implementation of Functional Programming Languages" by Simon Peyton Jones is worth reading.
- loup-vaillant 17y ago
  I fond that "implementing functional languages: a tutorial" is even easier. Now, these books are not for eager languages.