Parsing Techniques A Practical Guide

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1. astrangeJul 2022
   I mean, I think you should read a book on parsing theory, just not that one. I like "Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide" but there might be a newer better one.

   But clang and gcc both have handwritten recursive-descent parsers for C/C++. (C++ parsing of course is undecidable, or at least used to be.)

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2. astrangeFeb 2022
   > I bought the purple dragon and obviously, when you have the purple dragon, you MUST create your own programming language.

   Please read a better compiler book! The only good thing about that one is the cover.

   "Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide" is much clearer even just for the frontend.

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3. astrangeJun 2021
   The Dragon Book is literally a bad compiler book and you shouldn't read it. I don't know why people recommend it (not saying you did.) It explains things poorly and gets far too into the weeds on things that don't matter.

   I recommend "Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide" and Muchnick's compilers book - though there's probably something better by now.

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4. enhrayDec 2017
   When I started dabbling in programming languages design, Parsing Techniques - A Practical Guide was invaluable for me. I cannot recommend this book enough. First edition is available for free from one of co-authors site [0].

   [0] https://dickgrune.com/Books/PTAPG_1st_Edition/

   Edit: minor clarification.

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5. habermanSep 2016
   By far my favorite survey book on the subject is "Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide" by Grune and Jacobs.

   Here is my Amazon review of the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R17E19PSPM2UO9

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6. wolfgkeSep 2016
   > Out of curiosity, where would one find an explanation (potentially dry, long, and complicated) of the algos you mention here?

   > In other words - how did you get to know them?

   My book recommendation: Dick Grune, Ceriel J.H. Jacobs - Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide (Second Edition). Many people will also recommend the "dragon book" (Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman - Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (Second edition)), which is not a bad book.

   If you want to dive deeply into parsing and want to read about all the details over hundreds of pages, the Grune-Jacobs book is clearly the recommdendation. On the other hand, if you just want to understand the theory behind the parsing stage of a compiler (as one part of a compiler - and there are lots of other parts, too), you will probably prefer the dragon book.

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