Writing A Compiler In Go

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1. prologicOct 2026
   I still think the best books on interpreter and compiler implemtnations are the books by Thorsten Ball:

   - Writing an Interpreter in Go [1]

   - Writing a Compiler in Go [2]

   Absolutely best books I've ever read on the subject. And if you like to follow a step-by-step (each commit is a part of the boks) feel free to clone my own monkey-lang that followed the books pretty closely: https://git.mills.io/prologic/monkey

   [1] https://interpreterbook.com/

   [2] https://compilerbook.com/

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2. seg_lolDec 2025
   There is a good body of literature that is distinct from the academic compiler literature.

   https://t3x.org/

   https://compilerbook.com/

   https://interpreterbook.com/

   https://www.craftinginterpreters.com/

   R. G. Loeliger Threaded Interpretive Languages Their Design And Implementation https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43973544

   https://github.com/IUCompilerCourse/Essentials-of-Compilatio...

   And check out Andy Keep's Nanopass Compiler work, https://nanopass.org/

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3. Spartan-S63Apr 2025
   I've read Writing an Interpreter in Go and Writing a Compiler in Go. Crafting Interpreters is on my bookshelf and on the list to get through Soon™. The latter books by Thorsten Ball are an incredibly approachable introduction to the topic. It's how I initially learned Go and it reinforced what I learned back in my undergrad on how parsers and compilers work.

   I love writing parsers and get far too few opportunities to flex that muscle. I wish I had read Crafting Interpreters for this question, as well, but by all accounts it's an incredible tome, as well. Read them all and see what different information you pick up from them!

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4. kgabisApr 2025
   I went over "Writing an Interpreter in Go" and "Writing a Compiler in Go" but instead of doing it in Go, I did it in C. In hindsight it was a very good decision, because it forced me to write the code myself, instead of mindlessly copying it. After finishing the books I've spent some time extending the compiler I've written and I've published it on github (https://github.com/kgabis/ape). I've read Bob Nystrom's previous book, so I'm sure Crafting Interpreters is great as well, but I really recommend Writing an Interpreter/Compiler in Go.
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5. sitkackFeb 2025
   There is a whole body of non-academic work aimed at practioners for implementing compilers.

   Nils Holm's work https://t3x.org/

   Teaching and Learning Compilers Incrementally - Jeremy Siek - RacketCon 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43VA_QaTRT8

   Nanopass https://nanopass.org/

   original paper that was the basis for nanopass http://scheme2006.cs.uchicago.edu/11-ghuloum.pdf

   https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammingLanguages/comments/gnzra...

   The Crafting Interpreters and the Thorsten Ball books

   https://craftinginterpreters.com/contents.html

   https://interpreterbook.com/ https://compilerbook.com/

   https://www.phind.com/search/cm7efcpv000002e6hqdbfojex

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6. dashtiarianJan 2024
   For a start you should, you should buy the latest version of the Dragon Book and then put it on the shelf.

   Then you should get a copy of Modern Compiler implementation in ML. I love the Crafting Interpreters book, and also the Writing A Compiler In Go book; but they will not satisfy any person with undergraduate CS education.

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