FrIL - A Fractal Intermediate Language
Ron K. Cytron · Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) · 1993
This document describes the motivation, language description, and experience using FrIL, an intermediate language for a compiler's "middle-end". FrIL has successfully supported a two-semester compiler construction sequence, where the first semester included code generation from a C-like language and the second semester included advanced data flow analysis and program transformation. 1 Introduction As evidenced by this issue's table of contents, there is no lack of credible opinion concerning the nature and content of a good IL (intermediate language). Compiler writers have long wrestled with defining an endearing and enduring IL, yet only now do we see an effort to bring various ILs out of their closets and into scrutiny. Given the plethora of programming languages and computer instruction sets, it's remarkable how few ILs have an associated architecture: an exposed language definition, a contractual agreement between the front- and back-ends of a compiler, a reliable and stable inte...