Re: [Cardinal-dev] existing parrot compilers

[Dan Sugalski]

At 1:12 PM -0400 5/9/02, Pat Eyler wrote:
> i'm trying to learn more about compiler writing by looking at the scheme
> and mini-perl compilers in the languages sub-dir of parrot.  Are these
> good approaches?  Or is there another example to look at (I'm also looking
> at flim, a small front-end to gcc)?

You might find it more useful (though admittedly more expensive) to 
grab a textbook or other reference, rather than working from code for 
something like this.

Just off the top of my bookshelf, I'd recommend _Modern Compiler 
Design_ by Dick Grune, Henri E. Bal, and Ceriel J. H. Jacobs. 
Published by Wiley, mine has an ISBN of 0-471-97697-0. (Some folks 
may point you at the dragon book but don't listen to them--it's not 
that good, despite its status as a classic)

FWIW, there are minimally three steps in a compiler:

1) Turn text into tokens
2) Turn tokens into AST
3) Turn AST into bytecode/native code

Granted, awfully big steps, but... :)
--
                                        Dan

--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski                          even samurai
address@hidden                         have teddy bears and even
                                      teddy bears get drunk