Re: Intermediate compiler output format

"christopher diggins" <cdiggins@videotron.ca> wrote in message news:04-08-100...
> I was wondering if there are any particularly well-known or
> standardized formats for compilers that anyone could point me to. I am


Yes -there are, depending on the back-end you want to merge your
front-end with.


> currently designing an XML DTD for my Heron compiler output and I want
> to make sure I am not reinventing the wheel. Ideally the output format
> should be type checked, platofrm independant and relatively easily
> translated to languages like C or assembly. I am planning on
> performing optimizations on this output.
>
> TIA


C is a high-level language and assembly is a low-level language. When
you write a compiler, you want to write a front-end that takes in the
HLL as input and produce an inter-mediate output (3-address form),
which is then taken by the back-end to produce machine code. So, if
the target hw changes -you just plug in a different back-end to
adheres to the same protocol i.e i/m code format. If the objective is
to translate from HLL1 to HLL2, then you may want to adopt a different
strategy that does not generate inter-mediate code. Or maybe your
question isn't clear on why you need i/m code when translating from
XML/Heron to C.


regards
-kamal

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