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Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

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Re: Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

#51
post #29

The author's previous book Game Programming Patterns is 1000x better than the Gang of Four book. Really looking forward to going through this.

Does it cover the same material?

Nah, theres some overlap but they're better used to complement each other than as competitors.

Re: Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

#53

> Writing this all out makes me sound like a crazy person. What the hell am I doing with my life? Or, more importantly, what could I have been doing instead of doing all that? That's why your book is so good! Singular focus on one subject like this either causes insanity or genius. Examples: redis, Linux, sqlite, dwarf fortress, etc. I (believe, not sure) all were started by a single person who was insane by any meas…

CMIIW, but I believe most of those projects were started with a relatively small (and reasonable) scope.

Scope creep is one important way progress happens :).

Re: Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

#54

> Writing this all out makes me sound like a crazy person. What the hell am I doing with my life? Or, more importantly, what could I have been doing instead of doing all that? That's why your book is so good! Singular focus on one subject like this either causes insanity or genius. Examples: redis, Linux, sqlite, dwarf fortress, etc. I (believe, not sure) all were started by a single person who was insane by any meas…

CMIIW, but I believe most of those projects were started with a relatively small (and reasonable) scope.

but this book started with a relatively small scope too

Re: Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

#55
I had the pleasure of starting your book a few days ago and I am really impressed. Every aspect of it is excellent: it feels comprehensive but easy to read, the content is very well-organised and the illustrations are very nice.

I will definitely buy the book once it is available :)

Re: Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

#56
I've read the entire post and I still don't know how he did it. And his books are incredibly well written.

The day after I announced publicly I'm writing a book, my wife announced she was pregnant. I still continued writing but the motivation of the first day was halfed. Two weeks later, she told me it was twins, I quickly decided to get a stable job. I still wrote in the evening and weekends.

The kids came earlier then expected, and we had to spend 2 months in the NICU. Writing took a backseat. It turned into a day or two a week. When the kids finally came home... If I could get a paragraph in every week I was lucky.

At one year old, I check the last modified date on the files and it says a month ago. The quarantine helped me get a few paragraph here and there every night. But a good part of my routine has been reading the book to remember what it was about.

I'm really impressed with how Bob Nystrom managed to get 200k words in with life fiercely trying to get in the way.

Your first book was amazing, and I can't wait to get this one too in my hands.

Re: Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

#57
Bob, you absolutely rock. Congratulations on this massive accomplishment. I thought back to the sporadic times we hung out and you'd mention the book or illustrating almost in passing... I had no idea the depth of what you were trying to achieve. Then, finally, you did! And you did it astride many unique and challenging passages in life. I especially appreciate how you built it into a habit. You knew you'd finish, you just had to keep going. Right on!!

Re: Crafting “Crafting Interpreters”

#58

> Writing this all out makes me sound like a crazy person. What the hell am I doing with my life? Or, more importantly, what could I have been doing instead of doing all that? That's why your book is so good! Singular focus on one subject like this either causes insanity or genius. Examples: redis, Linux, sqlite, dwarf fortress, etc. I (believe, not sure) all were started by a single person who was insane by any meas…

I feel like this might be a required but insufficient condition for what Bob has achieved here. With both of his books, he has taken a somewhat dry topic (object oriented patterns, and now compilers / interpreters), and turned them into books anyone can understand. More importantly, he has somehow made them interesting, in a way that I have rarely seen before.

I suspect you're right, the focus probably helps with the process of distilling the core concepts (which are necessary to convey meaning), as well as the writing style. Picking the right analogies, the right illustrations, then executing them to perfection. I guess the passion for the topic shines through in his writing. Massive congrats to Bob!

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