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Programming Language Processors in Java: Compilers and Interpreters

David Watt, Deryck Brown · 2 HN comments
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Amazon Summary
This book provides a gently paced introduction to techniques for implementing programming languages by means of compilers and interpreters, using the object-oriented programming language Java. The book aims to exemplify good software engineering principles at the same time as explaining the specific techniques needed to build compilers and interpreters.
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If you are fluent in one of the functional languages (Haskell, SML, OCaml, F#)

Modern Compiler Implementation in ML (I'm not a fan of the C/Java versions)

https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Compiler-Implementation-Andrew...

If you are fluent in a mainstream OO language - Java, C#, Ruby etc

Programming Language Processors in Java: Compilers and Interpreters

( the code is in Java but can be trivially ported into any OO language )

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Processors-Java-...

Most compiler programming books use lex/yacc versions for lexing and parsing. Imo, this isn't a good way to learn lexing/parsing, and using recursive descent or combinator parsing approaches is (imho) the right way to begin.

If you want to know how tools like lex and yacc are built, then Holub's "Compiler Construction in C" is very comprehensive and goes into great detail about the required CS theory- (automata DFA, NFA etc).

The book seems to be out of print, but used copies are worth buying (imho)

https://www.amazon.com/Compiler-Design-C-Prentice-Hall-softw...

ksherlock
The Holub book (and source code) is available for download from the author - http://holub.com/compiler/
There may be better books but this was fairly pragmatic and I learned a lot: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Processors-Java-I...
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