Drinkable Chicken

Thanks to everybody who replied to my previous post about picking a suitable compiler book.

I think that, at first, I will go with Language Implementation Patterns. It was suggested by several people and seems the least scary. ;-)  After that I can always upgrade to one of the other books mentioned, if necessary. (The Appel book was mentioned multiple times as well, so that seems like an interesting choice too. The ML version likely has the least boilerplate.)

If and when I have more to say on the matter, I will likely do so on my new blog, by the way. I would not be offended if you added it to your newsreader. ;-) As it is, I probably won’t post a lot here anymore (although this blog has the benefit of being syndicated by Planet Python).

(The new blog talks a lot about Magic right now, but that is because I am working on a few Magic-related projects at the moment. Over time it will likely cover many more topics, especially Python and other programming languages.)

[I posted this on Hacker News. Reposting it here to reach a different audience.]

For years I have been interested in programming languages and their implementation. I have made many attempts over time to create my own (experimental) programming languages, mostly interpreters.

The problem is, my knowledge of this area of computer science is fragmented, to say the least. I picked up things here and there, but I never learned how to properly implement a compiler, interpreter, virtual machine, or even a parser.

So, I have decided to pick a book and work my way through it. I just don’t know which book. They all seem equally intimidating. A few candidates that I am considering are:

• The Dragon Book (new version, 2006); seems awfully big though, making me wonder whether I should pick a book that is a bit less comprehensive first, then come back to this one later;

• The Dragon Book (old version, 1986)

• Engineering a Compiler, by Keith Cooper and Linda Torczon

• Parsing Techniques – A Practical Guide, by Dick Grune; focuses on parsing though rather than the whole package

So my question is, which of these books, or any others, do people recommend? (My main interests would be interpreters and languages that compile to bytecode, either custom or targeting existing VMs. “Traditional” compilers that produce a standalone executable, not so much.)

Thanks in advance!

…time to launch a new blog… (in progress, so bear with me…)

I’m working on a new website, and I’m looking for a decent comment system. I checked out Disqus, but it doesn’t look good with the site’s design; also, it seems to be overkill. I don’t need people to engage in “discussions” and have “comment threads” and whatnot. Something simple would suffice, e.g. something like this blog’s comment system (which is part of WordPress, so I don’t think I can use it separately).

Most modern comment systems seem to focus on the discussion idea, though; Intense Debate and Echo (formerly JS-Kit), for example. HaloScan would have done the job, but it’s gone. :-(

Anyway, if anybody reading this knows of a simple comment system that doesn’t suck, please let me know. ^_^