Compilers and interpreters are very difficult programs to write, but modern software engineering tackles the complexity. Design patterns and other object-oriented programming techniques guide you to develop well-structured code in incremental, understandable steps. Apply what you learn in this book to succeed with any complex software project.

You'll learn to:

• Use Java to develop scanners and parsers for programming languages

• Employ UML to model software components

• Manage symbol tables with the Java Collections Framework

• Use XML to represent the generated intermediate code

• Develop an interpreter to execute programs, including a powerful interactive source-level debugger

• Implement an integrated development environment (IDE) that animates the execution of programs

• Use the IDE's graphical user interface to set breakpoints and single-step programs statement by statement with mouse clicks

• Develop a code generator that emits object code for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and run the compiled code on multiple platforms