- Author
- Douglas Thain, University of Notre Dame
- Published
- 2nd edition, 2020; online version revised 26 July 2026
- Kind
- Landing page for a free online textbook
- Original
- dthain.github.io/books/compiler/
- Subject
- Compilers and interpreters
- Themes
- Given away, Getting good
What it is
Douglas Thain, a professor at Notre Dame, publishes the textbook for the compilers course online. The page offers chapter PDFs and a print edition. It targets undergraduates who know C, data structures and computer architecture.
What it says
- The page says the book is free, with chapter PDFs open to download.
- Readers build a simple compiler from a C-like language to x86 or ARM assembly.
- Chapters run from scanning through code generation to optimization. A sample course project follows.
What evidence it gives
The page gives no evidence beyond its own description. It lists chapters, an appendix on a sample project and a code repository of examples.
Interests and limits
The author wrote the book and the page offers a print edition for purchase. Only the landing page was read, not the chapter PDFs. Nothing here shows how well the book teaches. The page is short, so this record is brief.