Re: the long way to the development of a compiler

Stefano Lanzavecchia wrote:


> I guess what I am really looking for is a set of reasonably well
> documented sample programs, that implement simple compilers with
> simple, but working back-ends (but a recommendation for a book would
> be equally good).


The problem is that the better the code generated by the compiler, the
farther it is from 'simple'.


There is a book written about the implementation of a simple 8086
pascal compiler, and while the code quality is poor it may get you
involved in the very basics of how to start generating code. If you
want email me at mailto::camille@bluegrass.net and I will try to find
the title (or someone else in this group will know it). I also know
of a 68K K&R C compiler that has been used as the basis for other
compilers; it is also quite buggy but may give other ideas about how
to begin with things like organizing code generation and register
allocation. It used to be on the ualberta site, but I don't know if
ualberta is hosting it any more. (My 386/68K compiler is an offshoot
of this, but I have done a lot of work to the back end to improve code
quality and bring it to ansi compliance and it probably isn't the
easiest thing to read at this point).


Another thing is to watch this group for the catalog of free compilers and
interpreters that comes out every so often (or search for it on the web).
There is simply mounds of compiler source code and you may well find
something that seems simple enough for you to grasp.


David

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