As someone pointed out in that thread, the original version of the "Dragon Book" was out in 1977, making it 45 years old:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/vinodg/status/1497632140254609408" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/vinodg/status/1497632140254609408</a><p>I used it in a compiler class in college in 1980, and it was already known as the "Dragon Book" back then.<p>You can still buy a used copy on Amazon:<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Compiler-Addison-Wesley-information-processing/dp/0201000229" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Compiler-Addison-Wesley-in...</a>
As the introduction to Nystrom's <i>Crafting Interpreters</i> (craftinginterpreters.com) says:<p>"Classic compiler books read like fawning hagiographies of these heroes and their tools. The cover of Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools literally has a dragon labeled “complexity of compiler design” being slain by a knight bearing a sword and shield branded “LALR parser generator” and “syntax directed translation”. They laid it on thick."<p>My thinking is similar (at least for undergrads and most people who want to write a compiler): avoid the dragon book, and stick with simple recursive descent parsing.<p>(I do kind of like Wirth's Compiler Construction though. Wirth also likes recursive descent although he describes other methods as well.)
Obglitory Hollywood reference by a group of America’s finest thespians - <a href="https://youtu.be/4U9MI0u2VIE" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/4U9MI0u2VIE</a>