Re: [Caml-list] Good book about ML compilation ?

[Richard Jones <rich@annexia.org>]

On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 08:40:52PM +0200, rixed@happyleptic.org wrote:
> Hello !
> 
> Suppose I want to learn how ML is compiled, and especialy how OCaml is
> compiled, it's various internal lambda representations and the like.
> Would this book :
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Compiler-Implementation-Andrew-Appel/dp/0521607647/
> 
> be a good one ?

I read this book last year.  It's mainly directed towards writing a
compiler for imperative languages.  I didn't find it to be anything
particularly special, but I guess it's OK if you want to know the
basics of writing things like garbage collectors.

For functional programming specifically, you might try Simon
Peyton-Jones's book "The Implementation of Functional Programming
Languages".  This used to be available free here, but as I write the
website is down:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/slpj-book-1987/

I have a local copy of it if you don't locate one.

> It's hard to tell what this book's worth from the customer advices ; it's
> especialy hard to tell if it fits well to OCaml or not.

Best way to find out how OCaml is implemented is to read
the source.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat