A BASIC COURSE ON COMPILER PRINCIPLES
Niklaus Wii Ti-I · 1969
An attempt to devise a methodology of compiler design is described, and all outline is given for a possible course on this subject. The theoreticM basis is formed by the concepts of phrase-structure language, finite-state- and stack-accepter, and transducer. As their extension capable of processing context-dependent elements of languages, a so-called Table-Transducer is postulated, and it serves as the core-algorithm upon which compilers are based. The developed theory and method of compiler construction is applied to an example of a simple programming language. 1. Motivation and aims. The subject of the design of processing systems for programming languages has recently gained widespread interest and is being con- sidered as an important part of the course offerings of new Computer Science Departments at many universities. The reason for this develop- ment seems to lie in the proliferation of the variety of programming languages--general purpose languages as well as so-called application languages. It is particularly the latter class which in the author's opinion will in the future gain more and more importance. A recognisable trend is that the number of computer users who hesitate to indulge in the art of detailed computer programming is growing. They wish to have avail- able a tool which is strongly oriented toward their specific needs and is adapted to the terminology and notation of the particular application field. A proliferation of such application languages thus lies in their very nature, and the growth of their number could very well turn out to be proportional to the expansion of the computer's application fields. Areas for which special languages already exist are for instance the simulation of electronic circuits (ECAP), the computation of the forces in structures (STRESS), the simulation of continuous systems and analog computers (CPSS, MIMIC), the field of formula manipulation