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Comment by rjbwork | Hacker News Reader

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rjbwork·

This will get you started on the compilers side of things.

http://www.amazon.com/Compilers-Principles-Techniques-Tools-...

You can also use http://lmgtfy.com/?q=sicp for a deeper understanding of interpreted languages and language structure.

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The dragon book is mentioned often, but usually only as "this book covers these things," which isn't really a recommendation, only a comment. Is the book actually good? Can you recommend it?

Yes, it is a great book. Trust me. If you are scared by the lexing and parsing algorithms, skip them because it is highly unlikely you will write them on your own. You don't need to refer to other sources to implement your own language with it.

It is good. I had a dated copy, but a lot of what it talked about was still applicable to learning how to implement a basic programming language.

You can usually find an International Edition of the dragon book on eBay for around 25 USD. The cover may be different, but the content is the same.

international editions are printed on horrible paper and often have mistakes for who knows what reason. I would steer clear of them for the most part.

The first edition can be had for $10 on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0201100886/ref=dp_olp...

That's not my experience.

I usually find then to be cheaper, in paperback, and sometimes with different exercise problems.

Cool. I'll take another look. I got burned a couple times buying books on half dot com that were being resold from India. Quality was horrid.

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