Editorial Review

Abelson and Sussman's classic Read more

Reviews (146)

SICP changed the way I think about making software.
A truly wonderful book. What else can I say?
Great intro to programming --
-- for someone who never has to deal with industrial software. But there is greatness here, so let's start with that.
inspires
whats this programming thing all about? thats what I thought mid-way through a business major in college. so i grabbed this book, because I'm a snob and I thought MIT, comp sci book, this should be a good, definitive introduction.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer Science    3. Computer programming    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. LISP (Computer program languag    7. LISP (Computer program language)    8. Lisp (Programming Language)    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Programming Languages - General    11. Programming Languages - LISP    12. Compilers & interpreters    13. Computers / Computer Science    14. Databases & data structures   

Reviews (57)

Contentgood, media a problem
I got the version 1/e plus selected online chapters 2/e
Classic
Some problems are solved in this business and answers are published in one place. "Compilers" is a solved problem. This is the one place to see the solution.

still definitive after 20 years
For twenty years, this book has stood as the definitive text on compiler design. Many programmers use a compiler to write programs. Only a small subset actually write [or debug] compilers. It is for the latter that the book is dedicated. Though perhaps the broader group of programmers could also benefit ["culture"] from knowing the general ideas in the book.
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Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer programs)    3. Computer Architecture - General    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Compilers & interpreters    8. Computers / Computer Architecture    9. Systems analysis & design   

Editorial Review

Optimizing compilers, which turn human-readable programming languages into the smallest, most efficient machine code possible, are among the most complex pieces of software ever written. Building a compiler is both science and black art and demands an intimate knowledge of data structures, algorithms, high-level programming languages, and processor architectures and their instruction sets. Read more

Reviews (14)

Confusing at best
I've seen chapter 14 of this book referenced (by a university professor giving suggestion to his students, not by a random guy) as:
Good for seasoned compiler writers, bad for CS students
Ok, let's be fair. This book provides a broad coverage of useful optimizations and it will be useful in case you work writing compilers AND have some experience.
Excellent
Advances in compiler design do not get much press these days. The reasons for this are unclear, but no doubt the perception that compilers need no further improvement has something to do with this. This book, written by one of the leading experts on compilers, certainly dispels this belief. Once readers get used to the idiosyncratic ICAN (Informal Compiler Algorithm Notation) invented by the author and used throughout the book, they get a comprehensive overview of compilers, especially that of optimization. Compilers for the SPARC, PowerPC, DEC, and Pentium architectures are treated in the book. The predominant emphasis of the book is in optimization, and so a few more recent and important topics in compiler construction, such as partial evaluation, are not discussed. Readers are expected to have a prior background in elementary compiler theory. My primary interest in reading the book was to gain insight into the compilation issues that arise in symbolic programming languages such as LISP and Prolog. Read more

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer Science)    3. Compilers (Computer programs)    4. Computer Architecture - General    5. Computer Books: Operating Systems    6. Computers    7. Computers - General Information    8. Programming - Software Development    9. Systems programming (Computer    10. Systems programming (Computer science)    11. Compilers & interpreters    12. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

Reviews (5)

A great starter guide to writing a compiler
I recently used this book to supplement the Dragon book in a Compilers course. I found this book so much easier to read and understand. They do a great job of laying out the basics and introducing you to compiler design.
Terrible for Starters
This book was the textbook for an undergraduate course on compilers.Let me make it short:I never read it after reading the first chapter.The authors may be top experts on compilers but they shouldn't be writing books. Another book written in 1982 (compilers, principles, techniques and tools) saved my life for this class.If you are a beginner "do not buy this book".

Super compiler text!
This is really a super compiler text. It is also one of the most recent compiler books you can buy.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Architecture - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. General    5. Technology & Industrial Arts    6. Compilers & interpreters    7. Computer architecture & logic design    8. Computers / Computer Science    9. Systems analysis & design   

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer programs)    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Networks    5. Computer Programming Languages    6. Computers    7. Computers - Languages / Programming    8. Interpreters (Computer program    9. Interpreters (Computer programs)    10. Java (Computer program languag    11. Java (Computer program language)    12. Programming - General    13. Programming Languages - Java    14. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    15. Java & variants    16. Object-oriented programming (OOP)    17. Programming languages   

Reviews (3)

Excellent! Very practical and useful
I have had this book for 8 years. It clearly describes compiler theories and examples. It is very useful when I develop very fast parser.(The code generated by lex isn't fast enough.) I am not in the compiler writingbusiness. This book is perfect for me.

Don't hesitate to buy this one: you won't be sorry!!
This book is a must have. It uses the dragon book (Compilers: principles, techniques and tools by Aho et.al) as a model but goes a great deal further in its use of examples when explaining the theory. Whenever I had a little trouble understanding the dragon book or wished that more examples wereused I turned to Holub's book. The book is extremely well organized. If youwant the theory its all there and if you want to just look at code its allthere too: thousands of lines of it! After explaining everything youactually get to see how lex and yacc are built (from the ground up) andfinally a C compiler. BUY IT NOW!!

Just Fantastic
Only a few words. Using this book, I designed a few compilers for testing languages, using Portuguese words and commands. It is yet on the development age, but, without this book it would not be abler at all. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Programming Languages - C    4. Programming Languages - General    5. Compilers & interpreters   

Reviews (3)

Very readable, very specific
This book is a very thorough look through all the ways you can extract and use parallelism and data dependencies advantageously in an optimized compiler, depending on your target architecture.As one example, this book contains every imaginable way to deal with arrays and loops and the maddeningly complex data dependancies that can result from their various interminglings.The book is refreshingly easy to read and contains pseudo-code and step-by-step examples everywhere you'd want to see them.

An excellent book on loop based optimization
Randy Allen and Ken Kennedy are famous for their contributions Finally, everything in one place.
As a researcher in the field, this book was immediately useful to me.Nearly every source code transformation and optimization technique that I'm aware of is present in this book, which often saves sifting through stacks of papers or looking for an elusive reference.If you're looking for a book to teach you the basics of how compilers work, it certainly is not the appropriate place to begin, but if you already have one good book on that then this book will make an excellent companion to it.It was slightly annoying that the book comes with two loose pages, one errata list and another to tape over a page early in the book, but that's what you get with 1st editions.Overall it's very good and the errors are very minor typos as opposed to factual goofs. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer Science)    3. Compilers (Computer programs)    4. Computer Architecture - General    5. Computer Books: Operating Systems    6. Computer architecture    7. Computers    8. Computers - Languages / Programming    9. Compilers & interpreters    10. Computer architecture & logic design    11. Computers / Computer Architecture   

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer Science)    3. Compilers (Computer programs)    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Java (Computer program language)    8. Programming - Software Development    9. Programming Languages - Java    10. Compilers & interpreters    11. Computers / Programming / Software Development    12. Java & variants   

Reviews (2)

hands on guide
This book is geared towards the synopsys synthesis tools (as evident in the title). It gives brief explanations about vhdl and verilog coding style (which can be found in many other books).
ok for an introduction to the tools
This book is interesting as an introduction to these tools but needs more depth ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Application specific integrate    2. Application specific integrated circuits    3. CAD-CAM - General    4. Compilers    5. Compilers (Computer Science)    6. Compilers (Computer programs)    7. Computer-aided design    8. Data processing    9. Digital Integrated Circuit Design    10. Electronics - Digital    11. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    12. Logic Design    13. Science/Mathematics    14. Technology    15. Technology & Industrial Arts    16. Circuits & components    17. Computers-CAD-CAM - General    18. Computers-Logic Design    19. Technology / Electronics / Circuits / General    20. Technology / Engineering / Electrical   

Editorial Review

Defying the stereotypical notion that technical books tend to be boring, Read more

Reviews (67)

Good Book
This is a very good book. it goes into a lot of detail on its subjects and covers everything you should want to know.

One of the best books on the dark side of C
I loved this book when i purchased it 8 years ago. The style of the writer is light and funny with lots of interesting and iluminating stories.But for the meat of the book, C, this book is unparalleled. It takes the reader into the entrails of C and compares the two main OSs dos/unix and how these differences affect one'sC code.Great fun, great learning.

Look Elsewhere for Expertise...
I'm afraid I'm in the "save your money" group of reviews.
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Subjects:  1. C (Computer program language)    2. C (Programming Language)    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming Languages - C    7. C & Visual C    8. Compilers & interpreters    9. Computers / Programming Languages / C   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (15)

Excellent reference
I always like O'Reilly books and are usually what I purchase. The "In A Nutshell" may be misleading to some. Just think of it as "C++ A Language & Library Reference." If you are a beginner looking for a how to, this isn't the one for you. "Thinking in C++" by Bruce Eckel (great book), or "Practical C++ Programming" would be the one a beginner would want. However, when you are ready to explore the inter-details about what C++ classes provides, this would be a good one to add toyour collection. The first half describes C++ in general, while the last half details the language reference. I like how the reference is structured, grouped by the easy to find header declaration at the bottom of the page. Quickly finding what you need is a great feature here. You can only do so much "std::cout << "hi" << std::endl; without a reference and this one covers the missing details. Not for beginners, but an excellent reference.

excellent
I found this book is excellent.It concisely covers many finer
Quick Lookup Resource
The book "C++ In a Nutshell" by Ray Lischner is recommended for users
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Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language    2. C++ (Computer program language)    3. Computer Books: Operating Systems    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - C++    8. C & Visual C    9. Computers / Languages / Programming    10. Computers / Programming Languages / C++    11. Computers/Programming - General   

Reviews (2)

Handles a tough subject in a thorough and readable way
I teach compiler construction and I personally hate the "Dragon book" because it is beyond the level of many students.Fischer and LeBlanc present most of the same material and they make it readable.Theirs was the first book to devote an entire chapter to symbol tables, the central data structure that all components of a compiler use.There should be a law mandate that compiler courses should use either this book or Thomas Parsons'.

Good treatment of difficult material
This book has a nice balance of theory and practical algorithms. There is enough detail to allow a (patient) reader to implement his own compiler tools, though like most other books on the subject, this book leaves youwith the feeling that the area might have died about twenty years ago (noinsult intended!); an update needed, to include OO languages, sometreatment of the complexities associated with parsing modern languages, C++etc. All things considered, still a great book, well worth the money. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Computer program language)    2. C (Programming Language)    3. Compilers    4. Compilers (Computer Science)    5. Compilers (Computer programs)    6. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    7. Computer Books: Languages    8. Computer Science    9. Computers    10. Programming Languages - C    11. Programming Languages - General    12. C & Visual C    13. Compilers & interpreters    14. Computers / Programming Languages / C   

Editorial Review

As a textbook suitable for the classroom or self-study, Michael Scott's Read more

Reviews (14)

Probably the best book in the "Survey of Programming Languages" genre
Every good programmer should know more than one programming language, that much is almost a consensus. But more than that, every programmer should educate himself about programming languages in general, what they mean and how they work. It's important to know at least the major programming paradigms, because they form the "mental model" of computation that is available to a programmer in a language from that paradigm.
Outstanding introduction to programming languages and their compilers
Over the years the Dragon Book has become the de facto standard for introducing compilers and related topics at universities. This is very unfortunate because "Programming Language Pragmatics" is in a completely different league and should be the one used instead. It gives the student (or the self taught) a complete and through overview of parsing, grammar, automata theory and other key language constructs. What really differentiates this book from others (and most notably the (in)famous "Dragon Book") is that it does so in a easy to understand manner and with lots of well written examples.
Not just for compiler developers. A little too much RISC
I agree that every compiler writer (not engineer: programming is a cruelly difficult writing *sui generis*, not engineering) needs this book but its market is or should be much wider.
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Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Computer Architecture - General    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Pragmatics    7. Programming - Software Development    8. Programming Language Semantics    9. Programming Languages - General    10. Programming languages (Electro    11. Programming languages (Electronic computers)    12. Computers / Programming / Software Development    13. Programming languages   

Reviews (2)

More than just GCC
--Warning only coves C and C++ bits of GCC--
Greatly expands the standard documentation
To some of us, gcc is an old friend. It has been around since the 80s. Predating linux, and from a time when free open source code was something weird. Gcc is a collection of compilers, and if you have a linux machine, gcc appears on it by default. Read more

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer programs)    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Open source software    7. Programming - General    8. C & Visual C   

Reviews (5)

Great book!
Excelent book!The author approaches the subject in concise and objective way clearly allowing to an agreement to more complex topics of the construction of compilers.
Very cheap edition for quite a lot of money
As an instructor who uses the text book in class I had expected to get a copy of the solutions for free, but I couldn't. I was very unhappy with the quality of the product that arrived in the mail. This book is printed on newsprint-like paper. I guess it was intended to be given away to instructors, so produced very cheaply. But it's not good enough for paying customers. That's a pity because the actual text book is excellent.

Intelligent book
I think Parsons had an intelligent idea in writing this book. Without originality claims (as he point out in the preface) the book is intended to the audience of novices, with the clear target of explaining in great details compilers principles. As he says in the preface, the objective is to prepare the reader for more advanced lectures, and he explicitly mention the reference book as an example: Aho-Sethi-Ullman's "Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools", a.k.a the Dragon book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer Science)    3. Compilers (Computer programs)    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming Languages - General    7. Compilers & interpreters    8. Computers / Computer Science   

Reviews (15)

One word...
Bad, this was a horrible book for cobol. Dose not give you enough information say on doing a date vaildation check. it wasn't very good. of course it didn't help that the professor wasn't that great either. (lol) any ways i didn't like it. it didn't really help me.

very good condition
book was in really good condition received in 7-8days

Great resource for beginning/intermediate Cobol programmers
This book is a great resource for the beginning or intermediate Cobol programmer. Very clear explanations and abundant examples aid understanding. The authors favor a "hands on" approach which encourages the reader to try out the concepts in each chapter. The example code is included on the CD (along with the input files for the exercises) which is a great timesaver.Read more

Subjects:  1. COBOL (Computer program langua    2. COBOL (Computer program language)    3. Cobol (Programming Language)    4. Compilers    5. Computer Books And Software    6. Computers    7. Computers - Languages / Programming    8. Programming - General    9. Programming Languages - COBOL    10. Cobol    11. Computers / Programming Languages / COBOL   

Editorial Review

Written for any programmer who works with compiled code, Read more

Reviews (14)

too abstract
maybe it's not the book's fault and instead it's my lack of sufficient background, but this book is hard to understand because of its lack of examples.

clear explanation of concepts
Whatever the hardware and operating system you are using, Levine offers a general explanation of what a linker and loader do. If you deal just in a high level language like C++ or Java, this book can help you appreciate what goes on at a lower level. Notably, the unix ELF and Microsoft Portable Formats are expounded on.
Helpful
This particular book had all the information I needed to know to make a COFF standard linker. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Assembling (Electronic compute    2. Assembling (Electronic computers)    3. Compilers    4. Compilers (Computer Science)    5. Computer Books: Operating Systems    6. Computer Operating Syste