A functional intermediate form for diverse source languages
Dave Mason · Conference of the Centre for Advanced Studies on Collaborative Research · 1996
This paper describes the use of WatIF, a simple compiler intermediate form based on the λ-calculus, for writing compiler front-ends for a wide range of programming languages. Somewhat similar intermediate forms have been previously used for single-language compilers, but applicability to such a range of languages has not been previously reported. Examples of code generated by front-ends for several languages show the large set of application-language features supported by WatIF.