Need a book recommendation:

What is the best textbook on compilers for _beginners_? I am an entry level dev from a non-CS background and I have _zero_ knowledge of compilers.

@irene's recommendation is also called the Dragon Book, it's pretty much a classic. Problem though, is that it focuses a lot on the stuff that goes around building a compiler (like parsing), and (I feel) not enough on actually, practically building one (of course you should still read it, best book for the requirements).

There's also Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, which teaches Lisp/Scheme and has interpreters and compilers as later chapters. The good thing about this book is that it's supremely practical and designed to teach from the ground up.

A more advanced text is Engineering a Compiler by Cooper and Torczon, you could check this for them fancier algorithms and stuff when you're done with any of the above two books.

If you want to get your hands dirty, the LLVM framework has a fuckton of libraries and stuff for working with compilers, check out the LLVM Kaleidoscope tutorial and Getting Started with LLVM Core Libraries by Lopes and Auler.

These set of books are also very good: https://cs.princeton.edu/~appel/...