4 ms·

I loved the book Compiler Construction. Wirth's emphasis on minimalism is a huge inspiration.

• munificent 3y ago
  I haven't read that one yet, but "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs" is just an absolutely beautiful gem of a book. It embodies his principles of simplicity and clarity. Even though it's outdated in many places, I adored reading it.
  • eatonphil 3y ago
    That's the other one I keep hearing about, must read it.
  • ufo 3y ago
    Speaking of which, that book is one of the very few sources I could find that talks about recursive descent error recovery and goes further than panic mode.
• int_19h 3y ago
  There's also an interesting book "A model implementation of standard Pascal" - not by Wirth - that implements an ISO Standard Pascal compiler in Standard Pascal, written as a "literate program" with copious descriptions of every single aspect. Basically, the entire book is one large program in which non-code is interspersed as very long multiline comments. I couldn't find it available for download anywhere, but Internet Archive has a version of it in the library that can be checked out for free: https://archive.org/details/modelimplementat0000wels/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/modelimplementat0000wels/page/n9...
  • pdw 3y ago
    Here's my transcription of that book: https://2k38.be/misp/ https://2k38.be/misp/ compiler.pas can be compiled with a modern Pascal compiler, but the resulting compiler cannot compile itself. I don't know if that's caused by a transcription error, a bug in the modern compiler or a bug in the Model Implementation. I would love it if somebody gets this working. I don't think I myself will continue with this project.