[plt-scheme] Good compiler texts?

One person's front-end is another person's middle end.

Todd, if Shriram's conjecture is correct and you are interested
in lexing and parsing (and as you say the 'theory'), I recommend
working through a text on 'automata' (as in finite-state, push-down,
Turing and friends). You get the theory and you get in a manner
that is related to the mathematics you could do in 12th grade.

If I am correct, and your phrase really meant the ideas of, say,
context-sensitive checking (e.g., variables, types) and the
assignment of meaning, then PLAI is the right text for you.

-- Matthias





On Dec 27, 2007, at 6:08 AM, Shriram Krishnamurthi wrote:

> While I appreciate people pointing out PLAI, it's a really bad fit for
> what the OP wanted, becuase he wants to focus on front-end matters,
> all of which are dismissed with a wave of the hand in a few pages of
> PLAI.
>
> Given that modern compilers texts de-emphasize front-ends, Todd may be
> best off referring to the Dragon Book (Aho, Sethi, Ullman) -- though
> in almost all other regards I would ask you to refer to something else
> -- because it probably has the most information on parsing matters.
>
> Just be sure your coffee is thick and strong.
>
> Shriram
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