Math. Plain english explanation of Big O. Preoccupations - Jim Remsik - For Writing Software, a Buddy System. Prog21: Want to Write a Compiler? Just Read These Two Papers. Imagine you don't know anything about programming, and you want learn how to do it.
You take a look at Amazon.com, and there's a highly recommended set of books by Knute or something with a promising title, The Art of Computer Programming, so you buy them. Now imagine that it's more than just a poor choice, but that all the books on programming are at written at that level. That's the situation with books about writing compilers. It's not that they're bad books, they're just too broadly scoped, and the authors present so much information that it's hard to know where to begin.
Some books are better than others, but there are still the thick chapters about converting regular expressions into executable state machines and different types of grammars and so on. Not surprisingly, the opaqueness of these books has led to the myth that compilers are hard to write. The best source for breaking this myth is Jack Crenshaw's series, Let's Build a Compiler! Frequently Forgotten Fundamental Facts about Software Engineering. Frequently Forgotten Fundamental Facts about Software Engineering Robert L.
Glass This month's column is simply a collection of what I consider to be facts—truths, if you will—about software engineering. I'm presenting this software engineering laundry list because far too many people who call themselves software engineers, or computer scientists, or programmers, or whatever nom du jour you prefer, either aren't familiar with these facts or have forgotten them. I don't expect you to agree with all these facts; some of them might even upset you. Complexity C1. People P1. P2. Tools and techniques T1. T2. T3. Quality. Logic Gate Simulator. Programming from the Ground Up.
Jonathan Bartlett Edited by Dominick Bruno, Jr.
Copyright © 2004 by Jonathan Bartlett Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in Appendix H. In addition, you are granted full rights to use the code examples for any purpose without even having to credit the authors. To receive a copy of this book in electronic form, please visit the website This site contains the instructions for downloading a transparent copy of this book as defined by the GNU Free Documentation License.
All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Published by Bartlett Publishing in Broken Arrow, Oklahom Library of Congress Control Number: 2004091465 Bartlett Publishing Cataloging-in-Publication Data 1. 005.268—dc22 2004091465.