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From: compilers@is-not-my.name
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Good practical language and OS agnostic text?
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:28:46 -0000
Organization: Compilers Central
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Guys, I'm having a bear of a time finding a good practical language
and OS agnostic text on writing a compiler. I'm weak in math and not
interested in the theoretical details. I want to understand the hows
and whys of compiler writing. Everything I've found is either
gobbledygook equations or "let's use C/C++/Java on UNIX" or things
that are so trivial and focused they don't explain general cases and
can't be extended to anything useful.

I think of all the compilers were written in the DOS days and there
were normal guys writing them, not Nobel math prizewinners. Shirley
there must be at least one book that explains how compilers work
without depending on intimate knowledge of a specific target or
implementation language?  Whatever happened to pseudocode? It doesn't
have to be modern, just something that covers all the practical
aspects of compiler writing. Not exhaustive coverage of every possible
angle mind you, but at least so I can understand the basics and get
started without having to go back to uni and get an advanced maths
degree. I'm a good practical programmer and have experience with
writing my own libraries for all sorts of data structures and
functions and am not a cut and paste sort of fellow at all. I hope to
find a text or two for a guy like me who isn't a professor! Thanks for
your suggestions.

[Sorry to burst your bubble, but I knew people writing compilers for
DOS, and they understood parsing theory just fine.  Although I agree
that some compiler texts are more readable than others, the math isn't
there to be obscure, it's there because understanding how state
machines and LL and LR work makes writing fast and reliable scanners
and parsers vastly easier. As far as the language they use for
examples, you have to use something.  If you can find a copy of
Holub's "Compiler Design in C", and the errata list which is essential
due to the incredible number of errors in the published edition, you
might be able to work your way through that. -John]