The design of a space efficient compiler
Michael K. Donegan · ACM SIGMINI Newsletter · 1978
Writing a compiler for a small machine with minimal software support can be quite difficult because the program is long and debugging is difficult. This paper describes a method which can be used to reduce the amount of code written and can simultaneously provide good debugging tools. The resulting compiler sacrifices little in terms of speed of execution and with a little more work can be made quite competitive with other techniques. We have used this method to write an MPL (1) compiler for a Microdate 32/S minicomputer. The compiler requires approximately 12K bytes as opposed to 32K bytes required by the compiler produced by the manufacturer and can compile itself in 60 seconds (real time).