Re: Multi-threaded compilers

Eric Gouriou <egouriou@CS.UCLA.EDU> writes:
      I am looking for papers/references about parallelization of compilers
      (and NOT compilers for parallel machines), or distributed compilation.


The Id compiler at MIT was written in Id, which is an implicitly
parallel functional language. There are no papers written about it as
far as I know.


        From my unsuccessful searches on the net, I could deduct that:
      a) Those who looked at it thought the problem was not worth
            of attack (too easy).


Not true. Compilers are very unstructured applications, and
parallelism is hard to find and exploit.


      b) Those who worked at it found distributed compilers useless.


I don't know how useful the Id in Id compiler was from a practical
standpoint. However, the fact that it was possible was in itself
interesting.


      c) The only people interested are the compiler companies and
            are not interested in sharing their experience.


There aren't too many "compiler companies" out there, and most of them
have better things to do than spend their time parallelizing their
compilers. They could probably gain more from a good rewrite.


For most compiling problems, parallel Make probably gives you 90% of
what you need.


-Andy
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