Understanding and Writing Compilers
Understanding and Writing Compilers by Richard Bornatby Richard Bornat
Shares rank 5 of 9 compiler textbooks by recommenders
People recommend it as a friendly, gentle overview of how to write a compiler, without heavy parsing theory.
People recommend it as a friendly, gentle overview of how to write a compiler, without heavy parsing theory.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 4
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 4 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Gentle overview without heavy parsing theory
“it gives a friendly gentle overview of how to do it, without excessive quantities of parsing theory”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Want to Write a Compiler? Just Read These Two Papers (2008)” “gives a friendly gentle overview of how to do it, without excessive quantities of parsing theory”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Want to Write a Compiler? Just Read These Two Papers (2008)” Helped a reader write a transpiler
“I like that book too, I bought it many decades ago and learned enough to write a transpiler”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Want to Write a Compiler? Just Read These Two Papers (2008)” Written in BCPL
“The fact that it is in BCPL is ultra cool.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Want to Write a Compiler? Just Read These Two Papers (2008)”
Other compiler textbooks people recommend
The four most recommended other compiler textbooks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Toolsby Aho, Sethi and Ullman | 23 | 17 | 58% | 9 | — | — |
| Modern Compiler Implementationby Andrew Appel | 9 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Writing a C Compilerby Nora Sandler | 8 | 2 | 80% | 8 | — | — |
| Engineering a Compilerby Cooper and Torczon | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Understanding and Writing Compilersby Richard BornatThis page | 4 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I like that book too, I bought it many decades ago and learned enough to write a transpiler”
“The fact that it is in BCPL is ultra cool.”
“it gives a friendly gentle overview of how to do it, without excessive quantities of parsing theory”
“gives a friendly gentle overview of how to do it, without excessive quantities of parsing theory”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.