mwang@watmath.UUCP (mwang) (04/22/85)
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM
- Wednesday, May 1, 1985.
Mr. J.R. Cordy of the University of Toronto will speak
on ``An Orthogonal Model for Code Generation''.
TIME: 3:30 PM
ROOM: MC 5158
ABSTRACT
Code generation is the part of programming language
compilation which is concerned with choosing the actual
implementation of programming language constructs in
terms of computer hardware. We can characterize the
code generation problem as a mapping from the abstract,
mathematical world of programming languages to the con-
crete, discrete world of computing machines. Objects
in each of these worlds can be expressed in terms of
two fundamental concepts: operators and operands.
Viewed in this way, every existing systematic approach
to code generation is based on the same model. This
traditional model begins by decomposing abstract
operand structure into sequences of abstract operators.
Machine implementation is then accomplished as a single
complex process which tends to obscure the mapping
between language objects and their machine representa-
tion.
We propose a new model, which we call the orthogonal
model, which separates the implementation of abstract
operators and abstract operands into two essentially
independent parts. In the orthogonal model, abstract
operand structure is left intact until implementation
of abstract operators is complete. It then remains to
implement abstract operands as a separate step.
We present a code generator structure based on this
model, which is simpler and more easily understood than
existing structures. We present fundamental algorithms
of the orthogonal code generator and show how these
algorithms can be easily parameterized across a large
class of target computers.
Coffee and refreshments will be served at 3:15 pm.