Re: code generation

Viesturs Rikards <vri@navigator.lv> writes:


> What datatype (data structure) would you suggest to use for
> nonterminals like 'conditional_expr', 'expr', 'identifier_expr' etc
> in yacc file for a C like language.


This depends on whether you want to produce an abstract syntax tree
for further processing or if you want to produce code directly (i.e.,
make a "one-pass compiler").


For very simple languages, a one-pass compiler may be the easiest, but
it requires such things as declaration before use of variables and
functions (or back-patching, which may make things ugly). So for
anything nontrivial, I would suggest you make abstract sntax during
parsing and then work on this.


Abstract syntax is in C described most naturally by a tagged union of
structs, i.e., a struct with a tag field (which is an enumerated
type), and a union such that the element of the union is determined by
the tag. Each union element is a struct type with fields for pointers
to subtrees and attributes.


See Andrew Appel's "Modern Compiler Implementation in C" for a
(slightly nonstandard) treatment on how to build and work with
abstract syntax in C.


If you produce code directly, you may only need a symbol table as a
data structure, as code is printed as it is generated.


Aho, Sethi & Ullman's "Compilers - Principles, Techniques and Tools"
is a good source for how to write one-pass compilers.


Torben

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