Book opinion: Crafting Interpreters

[guissalustiano]

Hey, Do you have some opinion about the Crafting Interpreter from Robert Nystrom book? I'm looking for a book to help me with the compiler implementation in this course and also give me a full view of the field. Thanks!

[grammarware]

On the first sight, seems like quite a reasonable book. I'll bring it together with my opinion to the next lectorial (this Thursday)

[guissalustiano]

I will not be able to attend the lectorial on Thursday, please write here too.

[grammarware]

Will do!

[grammarware]

I ended up spending half of the lectorial on the book, slides can be found on Canvas: https://canvas.utwente.nl/courses/13975/files/4153169 TL/DR version:

• it's fine, so if it resonates with you better than alternatives, go for it, it is a decent option
• one third of the book is spent on writing an interpreter, the other two thirds on writing a completely different processor of the same language, targeting a virtual machine — start with the first part, and it might be enough for you for this course (or for the rest of your life); you can always go back to the second part for fun
• the book has a bit of a hobby feeling: on one hand it's somewhat more enthusiastic than an average alternative, but on the other hand some definitions might not be completely synced with the state of the art
• there are also occasional sweeping remarks that should be taken with a grain of salt, but that goes for all books to some extent
• since I have the book now, you can borrow it from me until the end of the course if you want a physical copy. I have it with me at the lectorial today and can take it with me the next time, otherwise my office is 3102 in Zilverling, you can try randomly dropping by

[guissalustiano]

I'm so sad to have missed the class, but the slides and TLDR were enlightening. Thanks so much!