Compilers/Interpreters books?

[Hrvoje Blazevic]

Are there any good books on Interpreter/Compiler construction, using
Python as a defining language out there? Something like Essentials of
Programming Languages 2e ?

I would appreciate some pointers

-- Hrvoje

 

[Hrvoje Blazevic]

Are there any good books on Interpreter/Compiler construction, using
Python as a defining language out there? Something like Essentials of
Programming Languages 2e ?

I would appreciate some pointers

-- Hrvoje

After 48+ hours without answer, am I to assume that no such books exist,
or that the Python itself is not up to this task?

-- Hrvoje

 

[David Fraser]

After 48+ hours without answer, am I to assume that no such books exist,
or that the Python itself is not up to this task?

-- Hrvoje

Neither, but I suspect you'll find more online resources than books

 

[phil hunt]

I'm currently writing a compiler in Python, and have previously
written a code generator in it, so I can verify it is up to the
job.

A good reference for compiler writing is the "Dragon Book", more
formally _Compilers Principles, Techniques and Tools_ by Aho,
Sethi and Ullman. It doesn't give Python code examples, but you
don't need them; once you know the concepts, you can apply them in
any language.

 

[Ognen Duzlevski]

After 48+ hours without answer, am I to assume that no such books exist,
or that the Python itself is not up to this task?

Hi Hrvoje,

I am curently writing a flowcharting tool (for C) in Python. It is up to the task. There are many books on compiler
construction, some online resources (see the resource on parsing from python.org, there is also a free online book
linked from there). I am not sure if there is a book on compiler construction that addresses the implementation in
Python though. I think it is more important for you to be familiar with the theory behind compilers and the
implementation should then be easier, regardless of the language. Others have already pointed out the basic literature.

Ognen

 

[Daniel Yoo]

:> Hrvoje Blazevic wrote:
:>> Are there any good books on Interpreter/Compiler construction, using
:>> Python as a defining language out there? Something like Essentials of
:>> Programming Languages 2e ?

: I am not sure if there is a book on compiler construction that addresses the implementation in
: Python though. I think it is more important for you to be familiar with the theory behind compilers and the
: implementation should then be easier, regardless of the language. Others have already pointed out the basic literature.

Agreed; a lot of the concepts of interpreters have little to do with
the defining language. Essentials of Programming Languages makes this
point clear, as the material can be easily translated to another
language like ML. (And at times, it feels like EOPL was originally
written with ML in mind... *grin*)


You may want to look at Structure and Interpretation of Computer
Programs:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

I had written a translation of the Scheme interpreter into Python a
long long time ago; I think it still runs, though. *grin* Here's a
link:

http://hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~dyoo/python/pyscheme/

 

[Daniel Yoo]

Ah! I completely forgot to mention: someone has written a C compiler
in Python:

http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~varmaa/mini_c/

Atul documents the tools he had used to write the compiler, including
PLY (Python Lex-Yacc).

Hope this helps!