I repeat my criticism: I reported an error in the book <i>twice</i> to the email address that was specified for "errata," and never heard anything back:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1643787" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1643787</a><p>I would hope that they have corrected this error in this version of the book, but their non-response to my report does not give me hope.
I love this book! I have (or had) about 7 compiler books, and this was always my favourite (another notable is Programming Language Pragmatics, and also perhaps Modern Compiler Design in X).<p>For beginners, this book rocks. It's readable, very well written, and very easy to follow. For intermediates, it has tons of interesting asides and anecdotes.<p>(All this applies to the first edition - I haven't read the second).<p>Finally, many people recommend the Dragon Book; I really really could not recommend it less. Buy Engineering a Compiler instead - there is really no comparison.
good compiler books for the begginers:<p><a href="http://pragprog.com/titles/tpantlr/the-definitive-antlr-reference" rel="nofollow">http://pragprog.com/titles/tpantlr/the-definitive-antlr-refe...</a><p><a href="http://pragprog.com/titles/tpdsl/language-implementation-patterns" rel="nofollow">http://pragprog.com/titles/tpdsl/language-implementation-pat...</a>
If you want to look at a real-world compiler, check out the Go suite of "gc" compilers, which are mostly written by Ken Thompson. The source for the Go ARM compiler is at <a href="http://golang.org/src/cmd/5g/" rel="nofollow">http://golang.org/src/cmd/5g/</a>, or you you can browse the entire Go source tree at <a href="http://code.google.com/p/go/source/browse" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/p/go/source/browse</a>.<p>The Go compilers are very fast. For most of the code I've developed (several hundred lines per package) I rarely have to wait more than 0.1 seconds to compile <i>and link</i> on my 2.4GHz i5.
Edit: Ignore this entire comment. I've been reading a different "engineering a compiler" subtitled, "vax-11 code generation and optimization". Which, as I explained is very interesting, but certainly not really for a beginner. Now I just need to get a copy of the actual "Engineering a Compiler" everyone has recommended I read. :-)<p>I've just started reading this book, (older edition), after reading many recommendations that it would be a good place to start for beginners. I find it is an enjoyable read, but I don't really feel like I'm learning how to write a compiler. Much of the text seems devoted to the experience of wrestling with the restrictions of the technology of the day, (e.g. compile times were 12-24 hours because they had to wait for tapes generated by one half of the compiler at one location to be couriered to another location to be finished). I find this fascinating, but it's not really helping me learn to write a compiler. On top of that the solution and code is very close to the metal, which again I find to be fascinating but not incredibly educational.<p>I want to write a templating language in Haskell as an exercise to learn Haskell and get my feet wet with compilers. What's a good book for me?
It would be nice to learn about new compiler internals. I wonder though, how many of us would need to work day to day on a compiling language (as comparing to intercepted or JIT languages.)<p>BTW, why not getting that @ amazon? At least you get 20% of in the US (but only get the book by March)<p>(The worst plug here for my own amazon link, you are warned, please don't vote this down just for the link: <a href="http://amzn.to/fpNazO" rel="nofollow">http://amzn.to/fpNazO</a>)