编程与软件工程prog21.dadgum.com
想写编译器？读这两篇论文就够了
Want to Write a Compiler? Just Read These Two Papers.
2008 — 2015，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这篇博客文章推荐两份写编译器的入门材料：Crenshaw 的动手教程，以及一篇主张把编译过程拆成许多简单小 pass 的论文。作者的核心意思是，写编译器不必先被大部头理论吓住，可以从简单、可运行的实现一步步搭起来。
为什么经久不衰：它用极简、可动手的路径对抗“编译器高不可攀”的印象，今天仍是低门槛入门的经典指路文。
HN 评论精选
推荐语低估了阅读成本，值得读与否需要实际验证。
“Just”？我算了一下，第一篇有 94,000 词。真有人读完这两篇、确认作者推荐的东西值得读吗？边读边写代码大概要整整一周（我很想知道是否不同）。这是个真诚的问题。人们总被有影响力的人推荐读 SICP，但真正讨论它是否值得时，意见范围相当大。
Jabbles查看英文原文
"Just"? I make the first one 94,000 words. Has anyone actually read the papers to make sure that the OP has recommended something worthwhile? "Reading" and then coding alongside would probably take a full week's worth of time (I'd be interested to know if different). It's a genuine question. People are recommended to read SICP all the time, by many influential people, but when a proper discussion of whether it's actually worthwhile comes up, we found a considerable range of opinions. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846799
编译器难在整体工作量，不是书晦涩；多 pass 未必省力。
这些书晦涩并不是大家认为编译器难写的原因。对没写过编译器的人来说，难的是你要解决的问题规模。按规范为非平凡语言写编译器要大量工作。正则和文法可能难懂，遍历 AST 也可能难。百遍编译器也许让这部分更容易，但几乎肯定不能减少从零到可用编译器的总工作量，而“编译器难”的名声正来自这里。（顺便说，这不代表那两份材料不值得读。我扫了一遍，看起来都很好。）
Goladus查看英文原文
> Not surprisingly, the opaqueness of these books has led to the myth that compilers are hard to write. Opaqueness of the books is not what makes everyone think compilers are hard to write. What makes compilers hard to write, for someone who has never done it before, is the scope of the problem you're trying to solve. Writing a compiler, to spec, for a non-trivial language takes a lot of WORK. Regexes and grammars can be tricky to grok and walking abstract syntax trees can be hard as well. A hundred-pass compiler may make that part easier, but it almost certainly doesn't reduce the overall amount of work required to go from scratch to a working compiler, and that's where the "compilers are hard" reputation comes from. (Incidentally, that doesn't mean the two sources mentioned aren't worth reading. Scanning both of them, they look excellent.)
非科班也能靠 Crenshaw 教程上手。
我没有正规的计算机科学教育。第一次要写迷你编译器时，为了教育价值决定手写而不是用 parser generator。Google 找到 Crenshaw 的 paper（Let's build a compiler），跟着他的代码写自己的很简单。所以强烈推荐。
asg查看英文原文
I've not had a formal CS education. So the first time I had to write a mini compiler, I decided to do it by hand, for its educational value, rather than use a parser generator. Google got me Crenshaw's paper (Lets build a compiler), and I remember it was very simple to follow his code to write my own. So yes, much recommended.
多遍编译曾是内存受限下的权宜之计，并非新发明。
我被“作者提倡用几十或几百个编译 pass，每个尽量简单”逗乐了。这有点像走投无路时的招。IBM 1401 上有个 COBOL 编译器大约 79 遍。他们只有约 4K 内存，但有快速磁带机，所以每一遍读上一中间形式，处理，写出下一中间形式。除了做排序的那些遍。
Animats查看英文原文
I was amused by "The authors promote using dozens or hundreds of compiler passes, each being as simple as possible." That's kind of a desperation move. There was a COBOL compiler for the IBM 1401 with about 79 passes.[1] They only had 4K or so of memory, but they had fast tape drives, so each pass read the previous intermediate form, did some processing on it, and wrote out the next intermediate form. Except for the passes which did sorts. [1] http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/ibm/140x/C24-3146-3_1401_cobolOper.pdf
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