Re: front ends vs. code generation and optimization

  > I agree that there is a danger in compiler-construction courses of
  > over-emphasizing the easy part, namely front-end generation, and
  > short-changing the back-end issues.
  > ... there are a whole lot of people who haven't gotten the message.
      ...
  > So perhaps it is desirable that compiler courses should emphasize
  > front-ends and the automatic tools available, in order to improve the
  > balance.


In addition to the above it should be noted that front-end
issues are emphasized in compiler construction courses
(especially in first courses in the subject) because it is
more useful to know about them.


Tool-based front-end techniques can benefit the development
of almost any software with a command or configuration
language.


The same cannot be said about the complex techniques that
lurk in the back-end to improve (never optimize) the
performance of the generated code by a few tens of percent.


I know of a large engineering database system that uses
yacc-like tools to convert data between different formats
required by different applications, and I have seen lex used
to convert word processor files to a markup language.
Back-end technology seems quite irrelevant to this kind of
endeavor.




Stephen Adams S.Adams@uk.ac.soton.ecs (JANET)
Computer Science S.Adams@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bitnet)
Southampton S09 5NH, UK S.Adams@sot-ecs.uucp (uucp)
--

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