COMPILER CONSTRUCTION

Principles and Practice

Kenneth C. Louden
 Content
1. INTRODUCTION

2. SCANNING
3. CONTEXT-FREE GRMMARS AND PARSING
4. TOP-DOWN PARSING
5. BOTTOM-UP PARSING

6. SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
7. RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT
8. CODE GENERATION
 Main Reference
Book:

Compiler Construction Principles and Practice

Kenneth C. Louden
1. INTRODUCTION
 What is a compiler?
• A computer program translates one language to
another
Source Compiler Target
Program Program
• A compiler is a complex program
• From 10,000 to 1,000,000 lines of codes
• Compilers are used in many forms of computing
• Command interpreters, interface programs
 What is the purpose of this text
• This text is to provide basic knowledge
– Theoretical techniques, such as automata theory

• This text is to give necessary tools and practical

experience
– A series of simple examples
– TINY, C-Minus
 Main Topics
1.1 Why Compilers? A Brief History [Open]
1.2 Programs Related to Compilers [Open]

1.3 The Translation Process [Open]

1.4 Major Data Structures in a Compiler [Open]

1.5 Other Issues in Compiler Structure [Open]

1.6 Bootstrapping and Porting [Open]

1.7 The TINY Sample Language and Compiler [Open]

1.8 C-Minus: A Language for a Compiler Project [Open]
1.1 Why? A Brief History
 Why Compiler
• Writing machine language-numeric codes is time
consuming and tedious
C7 06 0000 0002
Mov x, 2
X=2
• The assembly language has a number of defects
– Not easy to write
– Difficult to read and understand
 Brief History of Compiler
• The first compiler was developed between 1954
and 1957
– The FORTRAN language and its compiler by a team at
IBM led by John Backus
– The structure of natural language was studied at about
the same time by Noam Chomsky
 Brief History of Compiler
• The related theories and algorithms in the 1960s and 1970s
– The classification of language: Chomsky hierarchy
– The parsing problem was pursued:
• Context-free language, parsing algorithms
– The symbolic methods for expressing the structure of
the words of a programming language:
• Finite automata, Regular expressions
– Methods have been developed for generating efficient
object code:
• Optimization techniques or code, improvement techniques
 Brief History of Compiler
• Programs were developed to automate the
complier development for parsing
– Parser generators,
• such as Yacc by Steve Johnson in 1975 for the Unix
system
– Scanner generators,
• such as Lex by Mike Lesk for Unix system about
same time
 Brief History of Compiler
• Projects focused on automating the
generation of other parts of a compiler
– Code generation was undertaken during the late
1970s and early 1980s
– Less success due to our less than perfect
understanding of them
 Brief History of Compiler
• Recent advances in compiler design
– More sophisticated algorithms for inferring and/or
simplifying the information contained in program,
• such as the unification algorithm of Hindley-Milner type
checking
– Window-based Interactive Development Environment,
• IDE, that includes editors, linkers, debuggers, and project
managers.
– However, the basic of compiler design have not
changed much in the last 20 years.

BACK
1.2 Programs related to Compiler
 Interpreters
• Execute the source program immediately
rather than generating object code
• Examples: BASIC, LISP, used often in
educational or development situations
• Speed of execution is slower than compiled
code by a factor of 10 or more
• Share many of their operations with
compilers
 Assemblers
• A translator for the assembly language of a
particular computer
• Assembly language is a symbolic form of
one machine language
• A compiler may generate assembly
language as its target language and an
assembler finished the translation into
object code
 Linkers
• Collect separate object files into a directly
executable file
• Connect an object program to the code for
standard library functions and to resource
supplied by OS
• Becoming one of the principle activities of a
compiler, depends on OS and processor
 Loaders
• Resolve all re-locatable address relative to a
given base
• Make executable code more flexible
• Often as part of the operating environment,
rarely as an actual separate program
 Preprocessors
• Delete comments, include other files, and
perform macro substitutions
• Required by a language (as in C) or can be
later add-ons that provide additional
facilities
 Editors
• Compiler have been bundled together with
editor and other programs into an
interactive development environment (IDE)
• Oriented toward the format or structure of
the programming language, called structure-
based
• May include some operations of a compiler,
informing some errors
 Debuggers
• Used to determine execution error in a
compiled program
• Keep tracks of most or all of the source
code information
• Halt execution at pre-specified locations
called breakpoints
• Must be supplied with appropriate symbolic
information by the compiler
 Profilers
• Collect statistics on the behavior of an
object program during execution
– Called Times for each procedures
– Percentage of execution time
• Used to improve the execution speed of the
program
 Project Managers
• Coordinate the files being worked on by different
people, maintain coherent version of a program
• Language-independent or bundled together with a
compiler
• Two popular project manager programs on Unix
system
– Sccs (Source code control system)
– Rcs (revision control system)

BACK
1.3 The Translation Process
 The Phases of a Compiler
• Six phases • Three auxiliary
– Scanner components
– Parser – Literal table
– Semantic Analyzer – Symbol table
– Source code optimizer – Error Handler
– Code generator
– Target Code Optimizer
 The Phases of a Compiler
Source code
Scanner
Tokens
Literal
Parser
Table
Syntax Tree

Semantics Analyzer
Symbol
Annotated Tree
Table
Source Code Optimizer
Intermediate code
Error
Code Generator Handler
Target code

Target Code Optimizer

Target code
 The Scanner
• Lexical analysis: it collects sequences of characters into
meaningful units called tokens
• An example: a[index]=4+2
• a identifier
• [ left bracket
• index identifier
• ] right bracket
• = assignment
• 4 number
• + plus sign
• 2 number

• Other operations: it may enter literals into the literal table

RETURN
 The Parser
• Syntax analysis: it determines the structure
of the program
• The results of syntax analysis are a parse
tree or a syntax tree
• An example: a[index]=4+2
– Parse tree
– Syntax tree ( abstract syntax tree)
 The Parse Tree
expression

Assign-expression

expression = expression

subscript-expression additive-expression

Expression [ expression ] expression + expression

identifier identifier number number

a index 4 2
 The Syntax Tree

Assign-expression

subscript-expression additive-expression

identifier identifier number number

a index 4 2

RETURN
 The Semantic Analyzer
• The semantics of a program are its “meaning”, as
opposed to its syntax, or structure, that
– determines some of its running time behaviors prior to
execution.
• Static semantics: declarations and type checking
• Attributes: The extra pieces of information
computed by semantic analyzer
• An example: a[index]=4+2
– The syntax tree annotated with attributes
 The Annotated Syntax Tree
Assign-expression

subscript-expression additive-expression
integer integer

identifier identifier number number

a index 4 2
array of integer integer integer integer

RETURN
 The Source Code Optimizer
• The earliest point of most optimization steps is
just after semantic analysis
• The code improvement depends only on the
source code, and as a separate phase
• Individual compilers exhibit a wide variation in
optimization kinds as well as placement
• An example: a[index]=4+2
– Constant folding performed directly on annotated tree
– Using intermediate code: three-address code, p-code
Optimizations on Annotated Tree
Assign-expression

subscript-expression additive-expression
integer integer

identifier identifier number number

a index 4 2
array of integer integer integer integer
Optimizations on Annotated Tree
Assign-expression

subscript-expression
integer

identifier identifier number

a index 6
array of integer integer integer
Optimization on Intermediate Code

t = 4 + 2
a[index]=t

t= 6
a[index]=t

a[index]=6

RETURN
 The Code Generate
• It takes the intermediate code or IR and generates
code for target machine
• The properties of the target machine become the
major factor:
– Using instructions and representation of data
• An example: a[index]=4+2
– Code sequence in a hypothetical assembly
language
 A possible code sequence

MOV R0, index

MUL R0,2
a[index]=6 MOV R1,&a
ADD R1,R0
MOV *R1,6

RETURN
 The Target Code Optimizer
• It improves the target code generated by the
code generator:
– Address modes choosing
– Instructions replacing
– As well as redundant eliminating
MOV R0, index
MUL R0,2 MOV R0, index
MOV R1,&a SHL R0
ADD R1,R0 MOV &a[R0],6
MOV *R1,6
BACK
1.4 Major Data Structure in a
Compiler
 Principle Data Structure for
Communication among Phases
• TOKENS
– A scanner collects characters into a token, as a value of an
enumerated data type for tokens
– May also preserve the string of characters or other derived
information, such as name of identifier, value of a number token
– A single global variable or an array of tokens
• THE SYNTAX TREE
– A standard pointer-based structure generated by parser
– Each node represents information collect by parser or later, which
maybe dynamically allocated or stored in symbol table
– The node requires different attributes depending on kind of
language structure, which may be represented as variable record.
 Principle Data Structure for
Communication among Phases
• THE SYMBOL TABLE
– Keeps information associated with identifiers: function,
variable, constants, and data types
– Interacts with almost every phase of compiler.
– Access operation need to be constant-time
– One or several hash tables are often used,
• THE LITERAL TABLE
– Stores constants and strings, reducing size of program
– Quick insertion and lookup are essential
 Principle Data Structure for
Communication among Phases
• INTERMEDIATE CODE
– Kept as an array of text string, a temporary text, or a
linked list of structures, depending on kind of
intermediate code (e.g. three-address code and p-code)
– Should be easy for reorganization
• TEMPORARY FILES
– Holds the product of intermediate steps during
compiling
– Solve the problem of memory constraints or back-patch
addressed during code generation

BACK
1.5 Other Issues in Compiler
Structure
 The Structure of Compiler
• Multiple views from different angles
– Logical Structure
– Physical Structure
– Sequencing of the operations
• A major impact of the structure
– Reliability, efficiency
– Usefulness, maintainability
 Analysis and Synthesis
• The analysis part of the compiler analyzes the
source program to compute its properties
– Lexical analysis, syntax analysis and semantics analysis,
as well as optimization
– More mathematical and better understood
• The synthesis part of the compiler produces the
translated codes
– Code generation, as well as optimization
– More specialized
• The two parts can be changed independently of the
other
 Front End and Back End
• The operations of the front end depend on the
source language
– The scanner, parser, and semantic analyzer, as well as
intermediate code synthesis
• The operations of the back end depend on the
target language
– Code generation, as well as some optimization analysis
• The intermediate representation is the medium of
communication between them
• This structure is important for compiler portability
 Passes
• The repetitions to process the entire source program before
generating code are referred as passes.
• Passes may or may not correspond to phases
– A pass often consists of several phases
– A compiler can be one pass, which results in efficient compilation
but less efficient target code
– Most compilers with optimization use more than one pass
• One Pass for scanning and parsing
• One Pass for semantic analysis and source-level optimization
• The third Pass for code generation and target-level optimization
 Language Definition and compilers

• The lexical and syntactic structure of a

programming language
– regular expressions
– context-free grammar
• The semantics of a programming language
in English descriptions
– language reference manual, or language
definition.
 Language Definition and compilers
• A language definition and a compiler are often
developed simultaneously
– The techniques have a major impact on definition
– The definition has a major impact on the techniques

• The language to be implemented is well known

and has an existing definition
– This is not an easy task
 Language Definition and compilers
• A language occasionally has it semantics given by
a formal definition in mathematical term
– So-called denotational semantics in function
programming community
– Given a mathematical proof that a compiler conforms to
the definition
• The structure and behavior of the runtime
environment affect the compiler construction
– Static runtime environment
– Semi-dynamic or stack-based environment
– Fully-dynamic or heap-based environment
 Compiler options and interfaces
• Mechanisms for interfacing with the
operation system
– Input and output facilities
– Access to the file system of the target machine
• Options to the user for various purposes
– Specification of listing characteristic
– Code optimization options
 Error Handling
• Static (or compile-time) errors must be reported
by a compiler
– Generate meaningful error messages and resume
compilation after each error
– Each phase of a compiler needs different kind of error
handing
• Exception handling
– Generate extra code to perform suitable runtime tests to
guarantee all such errors to cause an appropriate event
during execution.

BACK
1.6 Bootstrapping and Porting
 Third Language for Compiler
Construction
• Machine language
– compiler to execute immediately;
• Another language with existed compiler on the
same target machine : (First Scenario)
– Compile the new compiler with existing compiler
• Another language with existed compiler on
different machine : (Second Scenario)
– Compilation produce a cross compiler
 T-Diagram Describing Complex
Situation
• A compiler written in language H that
translates language S into language T.
S T
H
• T-Diagram can be combined in two basic
ways.
 The First T-diagram Combination
A B B C A C
H H H

• Two compilers run on the same machine H

– First from A to B
– Second from B to C
– Result from A to C on H
The Second T-diagram Combination
A B A B
H H K K
M

• Translate implementation language of a

compiler from H to K
• Use another compiler from H to K
 The First Scenario
A H A H
B B H H
H

• Translate a compiler from A to H written in

B
– Use an existing compiler for language B on
machine H
 The Second Scenario
A H A H
B B K K
K

• Use an existing compiler for language B on

different machine K
– Result in a cross compiler
 Process of Bootstrapping
• Write a compiler in the same language
S T
S
• No compiler for source language yet
• Porting to a new host machine
 The First step in bootstrap
A H A H
A A H H
H

• “quick and dirty” compiler written in

machine language H
• Compiler written in its own language A
• Result in running but inefficient compiler
 The Second step in bootstrap
A H A H
A A H H
H

• Running but inefficient compiler

• Compiler written in its own language A
• Result in final version of the compiler
 The step 1 in porting
A K A K
A A H H
H

• Original compiler
• Compiler source code retargeted to K
• Result in Cross Compiler
 The step 2 in porting
A K A K
A A K K
H

• Cross compiler
• Compiler source code retargeted to K
• Result in Retargeted Compiler

BACK
1.7 The TINY Sample Language
and Compiler
Reading this part of text as homework
1.8 C-Minus: A Language for A
Compiler Project
Reading this part of text as homework)
End of Chapter One
Thanks