Re: 'Learning Compilers': Functional vs. Imperative Host?

>In particular ML-like languages with
>pattern-matching on data structures make it easy to work on abstract
>syntax trees.


    Here, the compiler course doesn't use ML, but it does use the 'match'
macro, which will let you write something like


(match '(3 + 4) `(,x + ,y) (list (+ x y)) )


and have it put out 7. This lets you do (I'm told) an awful lot of the
AST parsing very easily. As Dr. Friedman likes to put it, "you write a
pass that's 50 lines long, but on every other pass, you only change abuot
2, which is why we have you do 5 passes in a week.." At some point,
they're going to get match up to the point where you don't even have to
copy the 48 lines that *don't* change, you just put in the 2 that do..
Don't ask me how, though.


Jim

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