Introduction to Compiler Construction with UNIX

This book is a great "How To" for lex/yacc beginners. It consists primarily of simple, readable examples of the Right Way to Do It. It's not going to make you into an expert compiler writer. But if you have been trying to employ lex and yacc and have been frustrated climbing up that first step or two on the learning curve, then this is a great book to begin with. Consume this book, then get a copy of O'Reilly's _Lex & Yacc_ and you'll be the office whiz at ginning up quick parsers.

This book uses LEX and YACC to write a "realistic" language. It's approach is very practical, not much theory. If you want theory, then go read the "Dragon" book (Aho, et al.). It covers the error handling in YACC in detail and shows how to read the error output that is generated. It explains shift/reduce and reduce/reduce errors and how to recover from them. Like I said, it is very practical and far better than the Nutshell YACC/LEX book.

This book supplies a practictioner with useful information to get moving quickly. It also manages to do so with a minimum of disorganization and chattiness that so plagues the O'Reilly book. I own both and rarely look outside this book's useful examples and clear typography.