Lex & Yacc are extremely powerful programming tools. They are also difficult to master. This book provides a good start. You may need to read it several times and work through the examples before things begin making sense. I also recommend the FSF's book "The Bison Manual" for indepth info on the most common Yacc-compatible parse generator.

In general this book is very good, and I would highly recommended it for anybody using tools like lex and yacc. It covers all the areas (both good and bad) of these tools. However, I find that the book is frustrating and incomplete in two ways :- (1) when it comes to solving some of the problems reported by such tools as lex and yacc, there is not enough of examples, especially less-trivial examples, and some of the more potentially obscure problems that can occur. (2) it is very frustrating that the page numbers listed in the index are out by 1 or 2 pages. In this era of technology this should not happen.

Firstly there are not many books on Lex & Yacc.
Unix programming by Kernighan & Pike provides
some necessary information but it is not sufficient
to write a complex parser or scanner. In these circumstances
this book acts like a God given gift for compiler developers.

The examples which introduce the tools are very good.
But the theory behind these examples is not well explained.
Probably NFA/DFA concepts add more strenght to the
book. Adding more and more concepts and examples
will make this as a unique book in the Market.

Many guys who desire jobs as compiler developers
follow this book. So some contemporary examples that
I expect from future editions of this book are
A) Parsing a Gate level design
B) A small simulator which simulates an analog/digital design
C) An assembler etc
D) Relational algebra tutor etc.

Hope the authors can consider this request.

When Robert E. Sherwood died, in 1955, his fame was almost mythical: a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist whose ROOSEVELT AND HOPKINS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY won his a fourth Pulitzer Prise; FDR's speechwriter and intimate advisor; Overseas Director of the OWI. We first meet Sherwood in the midst of his gifted, gay and delightful family. Later, after service in the Canadian Black Watch during World War I, he came to New York, worked on VANITY FAIR with Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker and was a member of the Algonquin's Round Table. He went on to prove himself an outstanding dramatist with REUNION IN VIENNA and ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, among other plays.

This is, as John Gunther says, "A brilliantly readable and rewarding book. It is not merely a biography of the fabulous Sherwood, but of the fabulous times he lived in. Beautifully written, lucid, witty, and a thoroughly good job."

When Robert E. Sherwood died, in 1955, his fame was almost mythical: a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist whose ROOSEVELT AND HOPKINS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY won his a fourth Pulitzer Prise; FDR's speechwriter and intimate advisor; Overseas Director of the OWI. We first meet Sherwood in the midst of his gifted, gay and delightful family. Later, after service in the Canadian Black Watch during World War I, he came to New York, worked on VANITY FAIR with Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker and was a member of the Algonquin's Round Table. He went on to prove himself an outstanding dramatist with REUNION IN VIENNA and ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, among other plays.