Requirements from ASTs by Debuggers and Source Browsers

I am trying to understand what requirements are expected from ASTs by
Debuggers and Source Browsers.


I understand that bison provides support for --locations which can act
as a base on which to build extensive source context information.


How do we build upon that base? I have a vague memory of extensive
source correspondence support in the EDG IL. Unfortunately, I dont own
a copy so I have to rely upon memory which isnt much.


I dont think gcc supports source browsing, so are there any other
reasonably complete implementations in the public domain that can
provide an exhaustive view of things that source browsers and
debuggers expect from a FE including and in addition to locations?


I have heard of the phrase "automated tree construction". What exactly
do they accomplish? I admit, expecting automation for my problem is
probably too much, but I take the risk of asking about it.


Sincerely,
Partha Sarathi Panda
[I told him that I've never seen a debugger that uses an AST. They
tend to use a symbol table and a map of source lines to object code
locations. -John]

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.