A retargetable C compiler : design and implementation / Christopher W. Fraser and David R. Hanson.

By: Fraser, Christopher W .

Contributor(s): Hanson, David R. (David Roy), 1948-.

Material type: materialTypeLabel

BookPublisher: Redwood City, CA : Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Co, 1995Description: xv, 564 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.ISBN: 0805316701.Subject(s): C (Computer program language)

| Compilers (Computer programs)

DDC classification: 005.453

Contents:

Introduction -- Storage Management -- Symbol Management -- Types -- Code Generation Interface -- Lexical Analysis -- Parsing -- Expressions -- Expression Semantics -- Statements -- Declarations -- Generating Intermediate Code -- Structuring the Code Generator -- Selecting and Emitting Instructions -- Register Allocation -- Generating MIPS R3000 Code -- Generating SPARC Code -- Generating X86 Code -- Retrospective.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
General Lending	MTU Bishopstown Library Lending	005.453 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		00009983

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Examining the implementation of lcc, a production-quality, research-oriented retargetable compiler, designed at AT&T Bell Laboratories for the ANSI C programming language, this book is designed for professionals who seek a detailed examination of a real-world compiler. A thorough and accurate picture of the lcc compiler is provided, and a line-by-line explanation of the code demonstrates how the compiler is built. The accompanying disk holds the full source code for the lcc compiler, the three back ends and the code-generator.

Bibliography:(pages 535-540) and index.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Preface
1 Introduction
Literate Programs
How to Read This Book
Overview
Design
Common Declarations
Syntax Specifications
Errors
2 Storage Management
Memory Management Interface
Arena Representation
Allocating Space
Deallocating Space
Strings
3 Types
Representing Symbols
Representing Symbol Tables
Changing Scope
Finding and Installing Identifiers
Labels
Constants
Generated Variables
4 Code Generation Interface
Representing Types
Type Management
Type Predicates
Type Constructors
Function Types
Structure and Enumeration Types
Type-Checking Functions
Type Mapping
5 Lexical Analysis
Type Metrics
Interface Records
Symbols
Types
Dag Operators
Interface Flags
Initialization
Definitions
Constants
Functions
Interface Binding
Upcalls
6 Parsing
Input
Recognizing Tokens
Recognizing Keywords
Recognizing Identifiers
Recognizing Numbers
Recognizing Character Constants and Strings
7 Expressions
Languages and Grammars
Ambiguity and Parse Trees
Top-Down Parsing
FIRST and FOLLOW Sets
Writing Parsing Functions
Handling Syntax Errors
8 Expression Semantics
Representing Expressions
Parsing Expressions
Parsing C Expressions
Assignment Expressions
Conditional Expressions
Binary Expressions
Unary and Postfix Expressions
Primary Expressions
9 Expression Semantics
Conversions
Unary and Postfix Operators
Function Calls
Binary Operators
Assignments
Conditionals
Constant Folding
10 Statements
Representing Code
Execution Points
Recognizing Statements
If Statements
Labels and Gotos
Loops
Switch Statements
Return Statements
Managing Labels and Jumps
11 Declarations
Translation Units
Declarations
Declarators
Function Declarators
Structure Specifiers
Function Definitions
Compound Statements
Finalization
The Main Program
12 Generating Immediate Code
Eliminating Common Subexpressions
Building Nodes
Flow of Control
Assignments
Function Calls
Enforcing Evaluation Order
Driving Code Generation
Eliminating Multiply Referenced Nodes
13 Structuring the Code Generator
Organization of the Code Generator
Interface Extensions
Upcalls
Node Extensions
Symbol Extensions
Frame Layout
Generating Code to Copy Blocks
Initialization
14 Selecting and Emitting instructions
Specifications
Labelling the Tree
Reducing the Tree
Cost Functions
De

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

The compiler is the linchpin of the programmer's toolbox. Working programmers use compilers every day and count heavily on their correctness and reliability. A compiler must accept the standard definition of the programming language so that source code will be portable across platforms. A compiler must generate efficient object code. Perhaps more important, a compiler must generate correct object code; an application is only as reliable as the compiler that compiled it. A compiler is itself a large and complex application that is worthy of study in its own right. This book tours most of the implementation of lcc, a compiler for the ANSI C programming language. It is to compiling what Software Tools by B.W. Kernighan and P.J. Plauger (Addison-Wesley, 1976) is to text processing like text editors and macro processors. Software design and implementation are best learned through experience with real tools. This book explains in detail and shows most of the code for a real compiler. The accompanying diskette holds the source code for the complete compiler. lcc is a production compiler. It's been used to compile production programs since 1988 and is now used by hundreds of C programmers daily. Detailing most of a production compiler in a book leaves little room for supporting material, so we present only the theory needed for the implementation at hand and leave the broad survey of compiling techniques to existing texts. The book omits a few language features--those with mundane or repetitive implementations and those deliberately treated only in the exercises--but the full compiler is available on the diskette, and the book makes it understandable. The obvious use for this book is to learn more about compiler construction. But only few programmers need to know how to design and implement compilers. Most work on applications and other aspects of systems programming. There are four reasons why this majority of C programmers may benefit from this book. First, programmers who understand how a C compiler works are often better programmers in general and better C programmers in particular. The compiler writer must understand even the darkest corners of the C language; touring the implementation of those corners reveals much about the language itself and its efficient realization on modern computers. Second, most texts on programming must necessarily use small examples, which often demonstrate techniques simply and elegantly. Most programmers, however, work on large programs that have evolved--or degenerated--over time. There are few well documented examples of this kind of "programming in the large" that can serve as reference examples. lcc isn't perfect, but this book documents both its good and bad points in detail and thus provides one such reference point. Third, a compiler is one of the best demonstrations in computer science of the interaction between theory and practice. lcc displays both the places where this interaction is smooth and the results are elegant, as well as where practical demands strain the theory, which shows in the resulting code. Exploring these interactions in a real program helps programmers understand when, where, and how to apply different techniques. lcc also illustrates numerous C programming techniques. Fourth, this book is an example of a "literate program." Like TEX: The Program by D.E. Knuth (Addison-Wesley, 1986), this book is lcc's source code and the prose that describes it. The code is presented in the order that best suits understanding, not in the order dictated by the C programming language. The source code that appears on the diskette is extracted automatically from the book's text files. This book is well suited for self-study by both academics and professionals. The book and its diskette offer complete documented source code for lcc, so they may interest practitioners who wish to experiment with compilation or those working in application areas that use or implement language-based tools and techniques, such as user interfaces. The book shows a large software system, warts and all. It could thus be the subject of a postmortem in a software engineering course, for example. For compiler courses, this book complements traditional compiler texts. It shows one way of implementing a C compiler, while traditional texts survey algorithms for solving the broad range of problems encountered in compiling. Limited space prevents such texts from including more than a toy compiler. Code generation is often treated at a particularly high level to avoid tying the book to a specific computer. As a result many instructors prepare a substantial programming project to give their students some practical experience. These instructors usually must write these compilers from scratch; students duplicate large portions and have to use the rest with only limited documentation. The situation is trying for both students and instructors, and unsatisfying to boot, because the compilers are still toys. By documenting most of a real compiler and providing the source code, this book offers an alternative. This book presents full code generators for the MIPS R3000, SPARC, and Intel 386 and successor architectures. It exploits recent research that produces code generators from compact specifications. These methods allow us to present complete code generators for several machines, which no other book does. Presenting several code generators avoids tying the book to a single machine, and helps students appreciate engineering retargetable software. Assignments can add language features, optimizations, and targets. When used with a traditional survey text, assignments could also replace existing modules with those using alternate algorithms. Such assignments come closer to the actual practice of compiler engineering than assignments that implement most of a toy compiler, where too much time goes to low-level infrastructure and accommodating repetitive language features. Many of the exercises pose just these kinds of engineering problems. lcc has also been adapted for purposes other than conventional compilation. For example, it's been used for building a C browser and for generating remote-procedure-call stubs from declarations. It could also be used to experiment with language extensions, proposed computer architectures and code-generator technologies. We assume readers are fluent in C and assembly language for some computer, know what a compiler is and have a general understanding of what one does, and have a working understanding of data structures and algorithms at the level covered in typical undergraduate courses; the material covered by Algorithms in C by R. Sedgewick (Addison-Wesley, 1990), for example, is more than sufficient for understanding lcc. Acknowledgments This book owes much to the many lcc users at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Princeton University, and elsewhere who suffered through bugs and provided valuable feedback. Those who deserve explicit thanks include Hans Boehm, Mary Fernandez, Michael Golan, Paul Haahr, Brian Kernighan, Doug McIlroy, Rob Pike, Dennis Ritchie, and Ravi Sethi. Ronald Guilmette, David Kristol, David Prosser, and Dennis Rithchie provided valuable information concerning the fine points of the ANSI Standard and its interpretation. David Gay helped us adapt the PFORT library of numerical software to be an invaluable stress test for lcc's code generators. Careful reviews of both our code and our prose by Jack Davidson, Todd Proebsting, Norman Ramsey, William Waite, and David Wall contributed significantly to the quality of both. Our thanks to Steve Beck, who installed and massaged the fonts used for this book, and to Maylee Noah, who did the artwork with Adobe Illustrator. Christopher W. Fraser David R. Hanson 0805316701P04062001 Excerpted from A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation by Christopher W. Fraser, David R. Hanson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Since 1975, Christopher W. Fraser has researched compiling, particularly producing code generators automatically from compact specs, and has published many technical articles in this area. He originated retargetable peephole optimization, which GCC, a popular C compiler, uses to help select instructions. From 1977 until 1986, Fraser taught computer science, including compiling, at the University of Arizona. Since 1986, Fraser has conducted computing research at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

David R. Hanson is a Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University with more than 20 years of research experience in programming languages. He has conducted research in conjunction with Bell Laboratories and is the co-author of lcc, a production quality, research compiler for the C language that is popular with the Unix community. lcc is presented and analyzed in the book A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation , by Christopher Fraser and David Hanson (c) 1995, Addison-Wesley.

0805316701AB04062001