This exciting and practical book for compiler construction combines history and development of several early programming languages together with sufficient theory to develop a compiler for an extensive language. The book reflects the author's views that compiler construction can best be learned by the actual implementation of a compiler. A source language, equivalent to early translating languages, is developed. An object language consisting entirely of numbers is also developed. The student will learn to write programs in the developed source and object language. Using the language C++, the author gently leads the student through the steps which are necessary to complete a working compiler in a one-semester effort. Extensive exercises at the end of each chapter keep the student's focus on the big project - the implementation of a working compiler.