re: Decus C and "grinding out compil

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7 Jan 86 03:13:00 GMT

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From: compilers@ima.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.compilers
Date: 7 Jan 86 03:13:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: ima.136300023
Posted: Mon Jan 6 22:13:00 1986
Date-Received: 7 Jan 86 10:46:37 GMT
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Nf-From: ima!compilers Jan 6 22:13:00 1986



[from cca!decvax!minow (Martin Minow)]


Decus C is a public-domain compiler for a subset of C that runs on
PDP-11's. It was written about ten years ago in PDP-11 Macro (assembly
language). (The person who wrote Decus C didn't have access to a
C compiler!) It is fairly close to Unix V6 C, with a few extensions.
It is more-or-less a proper subset of current (K&R) C's. Because
it is written in assembler, you would have a tough time porting
it anywhere.


While tools to generate parsers and lexical analysers make part
of the compiler-writing process look easy, code generation is
still a very difficult task. Doing it right requires you to
make use of every assembly-language trick you ever learned.


You should also beware of using your generator tool where it
isn't appropriate: "if your only tool is a hammer, everything
starts looking like a nail." For example, Decus C uses a
hand-crafted recursive-descent parser for statements and
operator-precedence for expressions. A parser-generator
might try to create an lr1 or lalr parser even where it
is inappropriate: it might not be able to switch styles
in mid-parse.


Martin Minow
decvax!minow
--------



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