This is an excellent book. I got so much out the first half I keep building little toy interpreted languages and haven't got round to the second half yet!
Crafting Interpreters: A Review
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Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#22And it's so much fun to go through. Most CS books are usually very dry, this one is such a fun read. I would encourage everyone to go and read at least the web version of the book, I'm sure that you will end up buying it at the end.
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#23What other books are of the same caliber that HN would recommend?
The programming meme books that you must have on your shelf (reading optional) are:
- The C Programming Language (original C book)
- The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP)
- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)
- Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (Dragon book)
- Don't Make Me Think (design)
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#24I've been wanting to read this book, but I'm not sure how I should go about it. Are you supposed to read and type out the code examples? I'm just wondering if I will learn anything that way?
the approach i took was to read it for understanding, and then go back and see if i could implement what i had just learned, in a different language, without reference to book. (so implementation would use same strategy, but not be exactly the same.)
it worked well for me.
i think this book along w/ spivak's calculus is probably tied for position #1 in technical book that i found most enjoyable and had the biggest influence on me. cannot recommend it enough.
edit: i should mention if i got stuck i went back to reading the book! the point was, "read to understand, try to implement, if understanding not there, repeat". rather than just typing directly out.
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#25What other books are of the same caliber that HN would recommend?
Same author wrote Game Programming Patterns: http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#26What other books are of the same caliber that HN would recommend?
The author, Bob Nystrom, also wrote Game Programming Patterns which I think is just as good.
You might also like Charles Petzold's book Code.
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#27This book is a work of art. It's one of the best technical books I've ever read. Truly a masterpiece along every dimension.
As the footer on the online version of the book says "Handcrafted by Robert Nystorm" - it really is lovingly hand crafted. It shows that the author went over the content many, many times polishing it with every go. The content builds up really well as it goes along.
On a minor note, whenever I read a technical book I always come across some mistake in the copy-editing, a missed article, a misplaced article, a typo. I'm 70% of the way in and haven't come across any! Which again speaks to the well-craftedness and hand-craftedness of the book!
Though I do feel the author ran out of steam with respect to the lovely, quirky artwork in the book. I'm disappointed Bob, I want my money back.
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#28I've been wanting to read this book, but I'm not sure how I should go about it. Are you supposed to read and type out the code examples? I'm just wondering if I will learn anything that way?
I copy/pasted the code examples, reformatted them so they'd work in a different language (javascript), and refactored it to write my own language instead of Lox.
Then I did it again with a different destination language design, and had to reference the book less.
Whenever I end up writing an interpreter for a third time, I'll probably be able to do it without referencing Crafting Interpreters at all, if I had to. But I expect I'll still check the book before doing certain fiddly parts of the parser.
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#29And it's so much fun to go through. Most CS books are usually very dry, this one is such a fun read. I would encourage everyone to go and read at least the web version of the book, I'm sure that you will end up buying it at the end.
Nand2Tetris is another fun one IMO, you can do a chapter a week (an hour of reading and a couple of implementation sessions) and be done in a few months
Re: Crafting Interpreters: A Review
#30This is the kind of book that really pays dividends into the future. Once you realize that lexing and parsing is not really that difficult, it makes a whole class of problems much easier.