Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!ucla-cs!cit-vax!ll-xn!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Request comments on text. Message-ID: <617@ima.ISC.COM> Date: Wed, 15-Jul-87 20:44:04 EDT Article-I.D.: ima.617 Posted: Wed Jul 15 20:44:04 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 04:25:56 EDT References: <609@ima.ISC.COM> Sender: johnl@ima.ISC.COM Reply-To: harvard!seismo!utah-cs!shebs (Stanley Shebs) Organization: PASS Research Group Lines: 36 Approved: compilers@ima.UUCP In article <609@ima.ISC.COM> stevev@tekchips.tek.com (Steve Vegdahl) writes: >[on dragon book weaknesses ...] These weaknesses can be largely summed up >in the sentence "the dragon book teaches you how to write a C compiler for >a traditional architecture". Amen. It is of course a mere coincidence that all the authors are associated with Bell Labs... :-) I would really like to see a text that covered Lisp/Prolog/Smalltalk implementation in general, both runtime and compilation. Alas, such a beast does not exist, although a hardworking instructor could assemble papers and book chapters, and get decent coverage. Peter Henderson's book "Functional Programming: Application and Implementation" (Prentice-Hall, 1980) has some good material in the back, including an object file to boot up your compiler with (!). Allen's "Anatomy of Lisp" is well-known but obscure in places, and the only material on optimization is recent conference papers and source code. > * A good programming environment is becoming increasingly recognized > as a fundamental piece of a language implemenation. The book does > not really address this subject. Quite a bit of good work has > been done, for example, in the area of incremental compilation > (e.g., Reps). Hoo boy, I might consider writing a text on straight language implementation (if I ever finish my thesis :-( ), but environments are a deep dark morass. It seems risky to include a lot of relatively undigested recent literature in a text that needs to teach basic principles and stay relevant for a few years. Still, it's probably about time for someone to get started. Is there anybody out there writing a book on environment implementation? stan shebs shebs@cs.utah.edu -- Send compilers articles to ima!compilers or, in a pinch, to Levine@YALE.ARPA Plausible paths are { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale | cca}!ima Please send responses to the originator of the message -- I cannot forward mail accidentally sent back to compilers. Meta-mail to ima!compilers-request