CS416 Compiler Design

CS416 Compiler Design 1

 Course Information
• Instructor : Dr. Ilyas Cicekli
– Office: EA504,
– Phone: 2901589,
– Email: ilyas@cs.bilkent.edu.tr

• Course Web Page: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~ilyas/Courses/CS416

CS416 Compiler Design 2

 COMPILERS
• A compiler is a program takes a program written in a source language
and translates it into an equivalent program in a target language.

source program COMPILER target program

( Normally a program written in ( Normally the equivalent program in
a high-level programming language) machine code – relocatable object file)

error messages

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 Compilers
• Compilers translate from a source language (typically a high level
language) to a functionally equivalent target language (typically the
machine code of a particular machine or a machine-independent
virtual machine).
• Compilers for high level programming languages are among the
larger and more complex pieces of software
– Original languages included Fortran and Cobol
• Often multi-pass compilers (to facilitate memory reuse)
– Compiler development helped in better programming language design
• Early development focused on syntactic analysis and optimization
– Commercially, compilers are developed by very large software groups
• Current focus is on optimization and smart use of resources for modern RISC (reduced
instruction set computer) architectures.

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 Why Study Compilers?
• General background information for good software engineer
– Increases understanding of language semantics
– Seeing the machine code generated for language constructs
helps understand performance issues for languages
– Teaches good language design
– New devices may need device-specific languages
– New business fields may need domain-specific languages

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 Applications of Compiler Technology & Tools

• Processing XML/other to generate documents, code, etc.

• Processing domain-specific and device-specific languages.
• Implementing a server that uses a protocol such as http or imap
• Natural language processing, for example, spam filter, search,
document comprehension, summary generation
• Translating from a hardware description language to the
schematic of a circuit
• Automatic graph layout (graphviz, for example)
• Extending an existing programming language
• Program analysis and improvement tools

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 Other Applications
• In addition to the development of a compiler, the techniques used in
compiler design can be applicable to many problems in computer
science.
– Techniques used in a lexical analyzer can be used in text editors, information retrieval
system, and pattern recognition programs.
– Techniques used in a parser can be used in a query processing system such as SQL.
– Many software having a complex front-end may need techniques used in compiler design.
• A symbolic equation solver which takes an equation as input. That program should parse
the given input equation.
– Most of the techniques used in compiler design can be used in Natural Language
Processing (NLP) systems.

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 Major Parts of Compilers
• There are two major parts of a compiler: Analysis and Synthesis

• In analysis phase, an intermediate representation is created from the

given source program.
– Lexical Analyzer, Syntax Analyzer and Semantic Analyzer are the parts of this phase.
• In synthesis phase, the equivalent target program is created from this
intermediate representation.
– Intermediate Code Generator, Code Generator, and Code Optimizer are the parts of this
phase.

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 Phases of A Compiler

Source Lexical Syntax Semantic Intermediate Code Code Target

Program Analyzer Analyzer Analyzer Code Generator Optimizer Generator Program

• Each phase transforms the source program from one representation

into another representation.

• They communicate with error handlers.

• They communicate with the symbol table.

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 Lexical Analyzer
• Lexical Analyzer reads the source program character by character and
returns the tokens of the source program.
• A token describes a pattern of characters having same meaning in the
source program. (such as identifiers, operators, keywords, numbers,
delimeters and so on)
Ex: newval := oldval + 12 => tokens: newval identifier
:= assignment operator
oldval identifier
+ add operator
12 a number

• Puts information about identifiers into the symbol table.

• Regular expressions are used to describe tokens (lexical constructs).
• A (Deterministic) Finite State Automaton can be used in the
implementation of a lexical analyzer.
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 Syntax Analyzer
• A Syntax Analyzer creates the syntactic structure (generally a parse
tree) of the given program.
• A syntax analyzer is also called as a parser.
• A parse tree describes a syntactic structure.
assgstmt

identifier := expression • In a parse tree, all terminals are at leaves.

newval expression + expression • All inner nodes are non-terminals in

a context free grammar.
identifier number

oldval 12

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 Syntax Analyzer (CFG)
• The syntax of a language is specified by a context free grammar
(CFG).
• The rules in a CFG are mostly recursive.
• A syntax analyzer checks whether a given program satisfies the rules
implied by a CFG or not.
– If it satisfies, the syntax analyzer creates a parse tree for the given program.

• Ex: We use BNF (Backus Naur Form) to specify a CFG

assgstmt -> identifier := expression
expression -> identifier
expression -> number
expression -> expression + expression

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 Syntax Analyzer versus Lexical Analyzer
• Which constructs of a program should be recognized by the lexical
analyzer, and which ones by the syntax analyzer?
– Both of them do similar things; But the lexical analyzer deals with simple non-recursive
constructs of the language.
– The syntax analyzer deals with recursive constructs of the language.
– The lexical analyzer simplifies the job of the syntax analyzer.
– The lexical analyzer recognizes the smallest meaningful units (tokens) in a source program.
– The syntax analyzer works on the smallest meaningful units (tokens) in a source program to
recognize meaningful structures in our programming language.

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 Parsing Techniques
• Depending on how the parse tree is created, there are different parsing
techniques.
• These parsing techniques are categorized into two groups:
– Top-Down Parsing,
– Bottom-Up Parsing
• Top-Down Parsing:
– Construction of the parse tree starts at the root, and proceeds towards the leaves.
– Efficient top-down parsers can be easily constructed by hand.
– Recursive Predictive Parsing, Non-Recursive Predictive Parsing (LL Parsing).
• Bottom-Up Parsing:
– Construction of the parse tree starts at the leaves, and proceeds towards the root.
– Normally efficient bottom-up parsers are created with the help of some software tools.
– Bottom-up parsing is also known as shift-reduce parsing.
– Operator-Precedence Parsing – simple, restrictive, easy to implement
– LR Parsing – much general form of shift-reduce parsing, LR, SLR, LALR

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 Semantic Analyzer
• A semantic analyzer checks the source program for semantic errors and
collects the type information for the code generation.
• Type-checking is an important part of semantic analyzer.
• Normally semantic information cannot be represented by a context-free
language used in syntax analyzers.
• Context-free grammars used in the syntax analysis are integrated with
attributes (semantic rules)
– the result is a syntax-directed translation,
– Attribute grammars
• Ex:
newval := oldval + 12

• The type of the identifier newval must match with type of the expression (oldval+12)

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 Intermediate Code Generation
• A compiler may produce an explicit intermediate codes representing
the source program.
• These intermediate codes are generally machine (architecture
independent). But the level of intermediate codes is close to the level
of machine codes.
• Ex:
newval := oldval * fact + 1

id1 := id2 * id3 + 1

MULT id2,id3,temp1 Intermediates Codes (Quadraples)

ADD temp1,#1,temp2
MOV temp2,,id1

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Code Optimizer (for Intermediate Code Generator)
• The code optimizer optimizes the code produced by the intermediate
code generator in the terms of time and space.

• Ex:

MULT id2,id3,temp1
ADD temp1,#1,id1

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 Code Generator
• Produces the target language in a specific architecture.
• The target program is normally is a relocatable object file containing
the machine codes.

• Ex:
( assume that we have an architecture with instructions whose at least one of its operands is
a machine register)

MOVE id2,R1
MULT id3,R1
ADD #1,R1
MOVE R1,id1

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 Compiler / Translator Design Decisions
• Choose a source language
– Large enough to have many interesting language features
– Small enough to implement in a reasonable amount of time
– Examples for us: MicroJava, Decaf, MiniJava
• Choose a target language
– Either a real assembly language for a machine with an assembler
– Or a virtual machine language with an interpreter
– Examples for us: MicroJava VM (μJVM), MIPS (a popular RISC architecture, for
which there is a “SPIM” simulator)
• Choose an approach for implementation:
– Either use an existing scanner and parser / compiler generator
• lex/flex, yacc/bison/byacc, Antlr/JavaCC/SableCC/byaccj/Coco/R.
– Or implement these yourself (limits the language somewhat)

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 Example MicroJava Program
program P main program; no separate compilation
final int size = 10;
class Table {
int[] pos; classes (without methods)
int[] neg;
}
Table val; global variables
{
void main()
int x, i; local variables
{ //---------- initialize val ----------
val = new Table;
val.pos = new int[size];
val.neg = new int[size];
i = 0;
while (i < size) {
val.pos[i] = 0; val.neg[i] = 0; i = i + 1;
}
//---------- read values ----------
read(x);
while (x != 0) {
if (x > 0) val.pos[x] = val.pos[x] + 1;
else if (x < 0) val.neg[-x] = val.neg[-x] + 1;
read(x);
}
}
}
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Analysis of specific compilers

Programs to be discussed:
• lex – Programming utility that generates a lexical
analyzer
• yacc – Parser generator
• lcc - ANSI C compiler

Platforms:
• All three programs designed for use on Unix
• lcc runs under DOS and Unix
 lex Programming Utility
General Information:
• Input is stored in a file with *.l extension
• File consists of three main sections
• lex generates C function stored in lex.yy.c

Using lex:
1) Specify words to be used as tokens (Extension of regular
expressions)
2) Run the lex utility on the source file to generate yylex(
), a C function
3) Declares global variables char* yytext and int yyleng
 lex Programming Utility
Three sections of a lex input file:

/* C declarations and #includes lex definitions */

%{ #include “header.c”
int i; }%
%%
/* lex patterns and actions */
{INT} {sscanf (yytext, “%d”, &i);
printf(“INTEGER\n”);}
%%
/* C functions called by the above actions */
{ yylex(): }
 yacc Parser Generator
General Information:
• Input is specification of a language
• Output is a compiler for that language
• yacc generates C function stored in y.tab.c
• Public domain version available bison

Using yacc:
1) Generates a C function called yyparse()
2) yyparse() may include calls to yylex()
3) Compile this function to obtain the compiler
 yacc Parser Generator
yacc source lex source
yacc lex

#include “lex.yy.c”
y.tab.c lex.yy.c
cc

a.out

• Input source file – similar to lex input file

• Declarations, Rules, Support routines
• Four parts of output atom:
(Operation, Left Operand, Right Operand, Result)
 Cross Compilation
 A cross compiler is a compiler capable of creating executable code for
a platform other than the one on which the compiler is run.

 Cross compiler tools are used to generate executables for embedded

system or multiple platforms.

 It is used to compile for a platform upon which it is not feasible to do

the compiling, like microcontrollers that don't support an operating
system.
 Uses of cross compilers

• The fundamental use of a cross compiler is to separate the build

environment from target environment. This is useful in a number of
situations:
• Embedded computers where a device has extremely limited resources.
• For example, a microwave oven will have an extremely small computer
to read its touchpad and door sensor, provide output to a digital display
and speaker, and to control the machinery for cooking food. This
computer will not be powerful enough to run a compiler, a file system,
or a development environment.
• Since debugging and testing may also require more resources than are
available on an embedded system, cross-compilation can be less
involved and less prone to errors than native compilation.

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• Compiling for multiple machines.
• For example, a company may wish to support several different versions
of an operating system or to support several different operating systems.
By using a cross compiler, a single build environment can be set up to
compile for each of these targets.
• Compiling on a server farm. Similar to compiling for multiple
machines, a complicated build that involves many compile operations
can be executed across any machine that is free, regardless of its
underlying hardware or the operating system version that it is running.

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• GCC and cross compilation
• GCC, a free software collection of compilers, can be set up to cross
compile. It supports many platforms and languages.

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 C4droid compiler for Android (Rs 192/-)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.n0n3m4.droidc&hl=en

• C4droid is a user-friendly (but powerful) C/C++ IDE + C/C++ compiler for Android. Note that
C4droid supports devices with ARM processors only (not devices with Intel x86 or MIPS
processor).
Basic features:
- Offline compiler: create your own applications on Android device and run them even without
Internet access
- No root required (but C4droid can use it for your programs if you want)
- Full ANSI C and ISO C99 support with TCC + uClibc
- Source code editor with syntax highlighting, tabs, code completion, code formatting, file
association and infinite undo/redo
- Export & share your programs as APKs or native executables (for terminal apps)
More features with a free GCC plugin:
- Full C++ and almost complete C++11 support with GCC + Bionic libc
- Native Activity, Qt, SDL and SDL2 support for GUI
- The most recent version of GCC always available
- Makefile support: use the same build scripts as on your PC (BusyBox is included)
- Semi-automatic open-source library porting feature for enhanced programming & education

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 AIDE - Android IDE - Java, C++
http://android.appstorm.net/roundups/developer/15-apps-for-programming-on-android/

• AIDE is an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing real Android Apps
directly on Android devices. AIDE supports the full edit-compile-run cycle: write code with the
feature rich editor offering advanced features like code completion, real-time error checking,
refactoring and smart code navigation, and run your App with a single click.AIDE will turn your
Android tablet with keyboard into a real development box. We use the Transformer Prime
running Ice Cream Sandwich to code with AIDE. AIDE will turn your Android Phone into a
small development computer to browse and touch your code on the go.
• AIDE supports building Apps with Java/Xml and the Android SDK as well as Apps with C/C++
and the Android NDK.
• AIDE is fully compatible with Eclipse projects. You can just copy the sourcecode to your
device and open the Eclipse project in AIDE to start coding. Alternatively you can keep your
sourcecode on your Dropbox - AIDE integrates with Dropbox and allows to easily download
from your Dropbox and sync back your changes. AIDE can also open Android Studio projects,
which follow the default folder structure.
• AIDE supports GIT for professional development

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