Re: Object-oriented compiler construction: ideas?

Oliver Plohmann <op@esec.ch> wrote
> When I first looked into a book about compilers I saw a parse tree with
> integers representing the respective keyword. I thought you could
> alternatively make up the parse tree of objects, like Statement,
> ConditionalBlock, Loop, etc. A ConditionalBlock would contain the
> condition and the respective code to be executed. Then you could put the
> knowledge of how the assembler code would look like for
> aConditionalBlock into that class. Same with the other classes to
> distribute responsabilities among objects to reduce complexity. This
> would also greatly reduce the amount of case switches.


I've developed lex and yacc-like tools that implement the idea you
describe. The tools are written in C++
(using the Microsoft Foundation Classes) and generate C++ in such a way
that the default action for a grammar symbol Statement (say) is to create
a Statement object, and you can invent your own attributes for these
objects, which form a hierarchy.


An early version is available for anonyonus FTP from
ftp://ftp.paisley.ac.uk/pub/mkc/toolszip.uue


If you're interested e-mail me and I'll send you the current version (yes,
I'll publish it properly in a few weeks). The new version also has
lex-style REJECT action and error recovery in the parser.


Malcolm Crowe
University of Paisley
mkc@paisley.ac.uk
Malcolm_Crowe@msn.com
100127.116@compuserve.com
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