Lulu Press, 2026 (64-bit Edition) – ~470 pages – 37 figures – 6" x 9" format
All code from the book is in the public domain!
COMING SOON! (Probably in October 2026)
Looking for the 32-bit edition?
Download the Sources
SubC Versions
What's new in the 64-Bit Edition?
Practical Compiler Construction is an advanced programming textbook and a compiler-writing primer. Some programming skills are required, but no prior knowledge in the field of compiler construction is necessary.
Study the heavily annotated source code of a full compiler for a subset of the C programming language generating code for Linux on the popular x86_64 processor. Learn about the practice of
Extend your theoretical background by learning about the foundations and applications of
Finally, have a look at more advanced compilation techniques such as
Instead of the 386 processor, which has not been the state of the art for a while now, the compiler discussed in the new edition runs on the more popular 64-bit x86 processor and under the Linux operating system instead of FreeBSD (but FreeBSD support is still present in the source code archive).
Some of the prose in the book has been worked over and further clarified to meet the standards the author has set for himself while writing novels.
A few paragraphs discussing different approaches to the implementation of runtime support have been added.
Thanks to everyone who gave feedback and tested the code on various flavors of Linux!