Learning data structures from a compiler text

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"Look up symbol tables for a moment. Most of the information
there is about data structures i.e., hash tables and string
storage. Why is this here? It's a waste of the reader's time
- anyone reading this book will know about linked lists."


Maybe not. In my freshman year, before I knew anything about data
structures, I picked up David Gries' old blue book ("Compiler
Construction for Digital Computers"?) and read the symbol table
chapter. It was one of the most exciting hours of my college
experience.


For what it's worth, I've also taught classes from both the old and new
dragon books, and would do so again. My major complaint about the new
book is that some of the material adapted from the old book was
broken in the transition. It seems to me that not enough care was
taken in verifying the new book before sending it to the printers.


    -=- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew) [UUCP]
                                                (andrew%tekecs.tek.com@relay.cs.net) [ARPA]
[Both editions of the dragon book were typeset with the authors using troff.
I suppose that's what happens when you edit stuff with ed. -John]
--

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