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I'm taking a basic course on programming language theory, and we're covering context-free grammar (BNF). Personally, I'm really interested in how to design syntax for a programming language. I'm planning to write a simple compiler for my graduate project, so what books are good for this area? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chan

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  • $\begingroup$ Virtual vote to close as exact duplicate of cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/1955/… $\endgroup$
    – Kaveh
    Commented Feb 12, 2011 at 7:45
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    $\begingroup$ I don't see it as an identical question @Kaveh. Maybe the answers would end up being the same, but the question you linked to seems more logic-directed, whereas this seems more directed toward practical implementation. For example, if @Chan is interested in implementing something in a "hot topic," he could look at the TOOLS section of the Visibly Pushdown Languages page. $\endgroup$
    – Aaron Sterling
    Commented Feb 12, 2011 at 16:25
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    $\begingroup$ @Aaron Sterling: Excellent suggestion. $\endgroup$
    – Dave Clarke
    Commented Feb 12, 2011 at 17:01

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For just learning about BNF grammars, a good reference is this.

However, since you mentioned its with the interest of developing a compiler, the dragon book is probably the best reference possible.

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I can recommend the ANTLR Reference. It explains many issues with language parsing (without the depth of the Dragon Book, though) and introduces you to a powerful (free) tool, namely a compiler generator. For both reasons, it might be a good starting point for your studies.

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