Compiler Generators

1 Introduction.- 1.1 The Scope of This Monograph.- 2 Report on the Compiler Generator CERES.- 2.1 Overview of CERES.- 2.1.1 On Composition of Programs.- 2.2 Description of Input to CERES.- 2.2.1 On "Concrete" Versus "Abstract" Syntax.- 2.2.2 The Semantic Language S.- 2.2.3 Writing Language Definitions.- 2.2.3.1 An Example: the Definition of LOOP.- 2.2.3.2 Extension with Products.- 2.2.3.3 Important Terminology Concerning Definitions.- 2.2.3.4 The Differences Between the Languages D and DS.- 2.2.4 Writing Interpretations.- 2.3 The Object Language T.- 2.4 The Compilers Generated by CERES.- 2.4.1 Translation from S into T by dS2T.- 2.4.2 Compilers Written as "Compiling Definitions".- 2.4.3 Compilers Written as Object Programs.- 2.4.4 Summary.- 2.5 The Compiler Generator.- 2.5.1 Compiler Generation Considered as Compilation.- 2.5.2 Definitions Regarded as Programs.- 2.5.2.1 The Abstract Syntax D of Definitions.- 2.5.2.2 The Language D.- 2.5.3 Translation from ? to D? by d' S2T.- 2.5.4 Translation from D? to S by dD?2S.- 2.5.5 The Definition ? of ?.- 2.5.6 The Compiler Generator cocom.- 2.5.7 How cocom Itself Was Generated.- 2.6 Implementation and Experience.- 2.6.1 Hardware and Software.- 2.6.2 Performance.- 2.6.3 The CERES Project.- 3 Compiler Generation, Composability, and Self-composability.- 3.1 Programming Languages and Compilers.- 3.2 The Compiler Generation Problem.- 3.3 Using a Semantic Language to Define Programming Languages.- 3.4 Composability and Self-composability.- 4 Discussion of Technical Aspects of Compiler Generation.- 4.1 The Algebraic Connection.- 4.1.1 Basic Concepts.- 4.1.2 Compiler Algebras and Homomorphic Translation.- 4.1.3 The Difference Between Compiler Algebras and Target Language Algebras.- 4.1.4 On the Need for Powerful Compiler Algebra Operations.- 4.1.5 Conclusion.- 4.2 On Choosing Good Semantic Languages.- 4.2.1 Mosses' "Semantics Implementation System" (SIS).- 4.2.2 Paulson's Compiler Generator (PCG).- 4.2.3 CERES and LAMBDA-CERES.- 4.2.4 The SAM System.- 4.2.5 Conclusion.- 4.3 Interface Problems.- 5 On Semantics, Compiler Generation, and Hacking.- 5.1 On the Nature of Machine-Readable Language Definitions.- 5.2 On Writing Language Definitions.- 5.3 On the Role of Mathematical Proofs.- Appendix 1 The LOOP Interpretation.- Appendix 4 The SelfComposer.- References.- Table of Symbols and Their Meanings.