Target machine for compiler course

I found the discussion about what to teach in a six-hour course on
compilers very helpful; so I'd like to hear what people think about
the choice of a target machine for a first course in compilers.


Some people would advocate (a subset of) C or Pascal as the target
'machine' code -- but I feel that doesn't really make the story a
credible one, even if it is a good way to prototype new languages.


Some people would advocate a hypothetical stack machine, but that
doesn't expose the problems in generating good code for real machines,
and suffers from the same credibility gap.


It might be nice to generate code for the SPARCstations that my
students will use for their practicals. But isn't generating code for
RISC machines with register windows, delay slots, etc. too much for a
first detailed look?


Or maybe we should generate code for the 8086, then some students will
be able to run the code at home.


And wasn't the PDP-11 an ideal machine for this purpose? Several GP
registers, but not so many that they don't seem scarce -- a simple &
almost regular instruction set -- neat adressing modes. But who wants
to teach archaeology?


What do you think?


-- Mike


+-----------------------------+----------------------------------+
| Mike Spivey, | Phone: +44-865-273838 (Work) |
| Programming Research Group, | +44-865-724430 (Home) |
| Wolfson Building, | |
| Parks Road, | FAX: +44-865-273839 |
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[Holub in his book used a machine-level subset of C, whish seemed to me to work
pretty well.-John]
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