Complier Construction: Motivation and

Overview
Shashank Gupta
BITS Pilani Assistant Professor
Pilani Campus
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
Key Points to be Covered
• Motivation for Studying the Compiler
• Overview of Compiler
• Organisation of the Course

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Motivation for Studying the
Compiler
• Numerous Applications for Compiler Technology.

Parsers Interpreters

Machine
S/W
Code
Engineering
Generation

Suspicious Designing of
Code Computer
Detection Architectures
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Complexity of Compiler
Technology

The complexity of a compiler arises from the fact that it is

required to map a program specifications to architectural details.

Uses algorithms and techniques from different domains of

Computer Science.

Emphasizes on Tool Building.

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Nature of Compiler Algorithms

Finite Pushdown Graph Greedy Dynamic Complex Data

Automata Automata Algorithms Algorithms Programming Structures
• Lexical • Parsing • Dead Code • Register • Instruction • Symbol
Analysis Elimination Allocation Selection Tables, Parse
Trees,

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Language Processing System

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Overview of Compiler

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Compilers vs Interpreters

Compilers generate machine code, whereas

interpreters interpret intermediate code.

Interpreters are easier to write.

Perl, Python, Unix Shell, etc. are all Interpreter-

based languages.
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Translation Overview of Lexical
Analysis

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Lexical Analysis (LA)

LA can be generated automatically from regular

expression specifications.

LEX and flex are two tools that works as a lexical

analyzer.

LA is a Deterministic Finite State Automaton.

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Translation Overview of Syntax
Analysis

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Parsing or Syntax Analysis

Syntax analyzers can be generated

automatically from Context-Free Grammar.

Parsers are Deterministic Push-down

Automata.

It cannot handle context-sensitive features of

programming languages.

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Translation Overview of Semantic
Analysis

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Semantic Analysis

Type Checking

Stores type information in the

symbol table or the syntax tree.

Type Variables, function

parameters, array dimensions, etc.

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Translation Overview of
Intermediate Code Generation

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Types of Intermediate Code
Generation

Quadruples, triples, indirect triples, Abstract Syntax

Trees (AST) are the classical forms.

Static Single Assignment Form (SSA) is a recent

form and enables more effective optimizations.

Program Dependence Graph (PDG) is useful in

automatic parallelization, instruction scheduling, etc.

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Intermediate Code Generation

Generating machine code directly from source code

is possible, but it includes two problems:
• With p languages and q target machines, we need to write p *q
compilers.
• The code optimizer is one of the largest and very difficult to
write component of any compiler cannot be reused.
By converting source code to an intermediate code, a
machine independent code optimizer may be written.

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Translation Overview of Code
Optimization

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Machine-Independent Code
Optimization

Intermediate Code Generation

introduces many inefficiencies.

Extra copies of variables, using

variables instead of constants, etc.

Code Optimization removes such

inefficiencies and improves code.

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Examples of Machine-Independent
Optimizations

Common sub-expression elimination

Loop invariant
Copy Propagation
code motion

Partial Induction
Strength
redundancy Variable
Reduction
elimination Elimination
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Translation Overview of Code
Generation

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Code Generation

Converts intermediate code into machine code.

Must handle all aspects of machine architecture.

Storage Allocation Decisions are also done here.

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Machine Dependent Optimization

Peephole Optimizations
• Analyze sequence of instructions in a small
window (peephole) and using preset patterns,
replace them with a more efficient sequence.
• Redundant Instruction Elimination
• Eliminate “Jump to Jump” Instruction.

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Thank You

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