We have designed, implemented, and proved the correctness of a compiler generator that accepts action semantic descriptions of imperative programming languages. The generated compilers emit absolute code for an abstract RISC machine language that currently is assembled into code for the SPARC and the HP Precision Architecture. Our machine language needs no run-time type-checking and is thus more realistic than those considered in previous compiler proofs. We use solely algebraic specifications; proofs are given in the initial model. 1 Introduction The previous approaches to proving correctness of compilers for non-trivial languages all use target code with run-time type-checking. The following semantic rule is typical for these target languages: (FIRST : C; hv 1 ; v 2 i : S) ! (C; v 1 : S) The rule describes the semantics of an instruction that extracts the first component of the top-element of the stack, provided that the top-element is a pair. If not, then it is implicit that the...

Automatic program specialization has numerous application areas ranging from specialization of scientific computation to automatic compiler generation. During the last decade, several automatic partial evaluators have been developed and demonstrated their usefulness. However, none of these have both been for a typed imperative language and self-applicable. The main content of this thesis is the development of an automatic self-applicable program specializer for a substantial subset of the C programming language. The use of an imperative language introduce many problems not present in partial evaluation of functional languages. New problems addressed and solved in this thesis includes handling of static side-effects under dynamic control, treatment of the imperative data structures arrays and structures, partially static data structures and specialization time splitting of these, and representation of values and programs for efficient self-application. In the thesis we recall the founda...

Conventional procedure and type definition mechanisms are not sufficiently powerful to express many programming abstractions that can be captured by syntactic transformations. Unfortunately, conventional macroprocessing is oblivious to the semantics of the base language, resulting in scoping anomalies, poor handling of static semantic errors, and an inability to perform transformations dependent on semantic attributes of the manipulated program. We introduce a new mechanism, semantic macros, which permit such transformations a significant level of access to the static semantic properties of the program fragments they manipulate. In this way, new static semantic processing, including compilation of embedded languages with a rich static semantics of their own, can be incorporated into user-defined language extensions. A proof-of-concept language, XL, is described which embodies this mechanism. Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DoD), monitored by Spac...

We describe the automatic generation of a provably correct compiler for a non-trivial subset of Ada. The compiler is generated from an action semantic description; it emits absolute code for an abstract RISC machine language that currently is assembled into code for the SPARC and the HP Precision Architecture. The generated code is an order of magnitude better than what is produced by compilers generated by the classical systems of Mosses, Paulson, and Wand. The use of action semantics makes the processable language specification easy to read and pleasant to work with. In Proc. ICCL'92, Fourth IEEE International Conference on Computer Languages, pages 117--126. 1 Introduction The purpose of a language designer's workbench, envisioned by Pleban, is to drastically improve the language design process. The major components in such a workbench are: ffl A specification language whose specifications are easily maintainable, and accessible without knowledge of the underlying theory; and f...

. Action Semantics is a new and interesting foundation for semantics based compiler generation. In this paper we present several analyses of actions, and apply them in a compiler generator capable of generating efficient, optimizing compilers for procedural and functional languages with higher order recursive functions. The automatically generated compilers producecode that is comparable with code produced by handwritten compilers. 1 Introduction Semantics based compiler generation has long been a goal in computer science. Automatic generation of compilers from semantic descriptions of programming languages relieves programmers and language theorists from much of the burden of writing compilers. We describe the OASIS (OptimizingAction-based Semantic Implementation System) compiler generator, and especially the analyses that provide the information enabling the code generator to produce good quality code. The generated compilers expand a given abstract syntax tree to the equivalent ac...

Denotational semantics is now used widely for the formal definition of programming languages but there is a lack of appropriate tools to support language development. General purpose language implementation systems are oriented to syntax with poor support for semantics. Specialised denotational semantics based systems correspond closely to the formalism but are rendered inflexible for language experimentation by their monolithic multiple stages Exploratory language development with formal definitions is better served by a unitary notation, encompassing syntax and semantics, which is close to but simpler than denotational semantics. Interactive implementation of the notation then facilitates language investigation through the direct execution of a formal definition as an interpreter for the defined language. This thesis presents Navel, a run-time typed, applicative order, pure functional programming language with integrated context free grammar rules. Navel has been used to develop prot...