C

C
ompiler
onstruction

Abdul Wahab
Lecturer
IIT, UST Bannu
abdul_bu@yahoo.com.

1
Cousins of Compiler
 Preprocessors
 Assemblers
 Loader and Link-Editor

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Preprocessors
 They produce input to compiler. They may perform
the following functions:
1. Macro Processing
2. File Inclusion
3. Rational preprocessors (they augment older languages with
modern flow of control)
4. Language extensions
(Equel is a database query language embedded in C)

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Assembler
 Some compiler produces assembly code that is passed to an
assembler for processing.

 Other compilers produces relocatable machine code that can be

passed directly to the loader/link-editor.

Assembly code is a mnemonic version of machine code, in which

names are used instead of binary codes for operations. e.g.
MOV a, R1
ADD #2, R1
MOV R1, b

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Two-Pass Assembly
 The assembler makes two passes over the input.

 A pass consist of reading the input file once.

 In the first pass, all the identifiers that denote storage

locations are found and stored in a symbol table
(separate from that of compiler)

 Identifiers are assigned storage locations as they are

encountered for the first time

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For Example
 The symbol table might contains the entries as shown
below: (Assuming that a word consists of 4 bytes, and the addresses
are assigned starting from bytes)

IDENTIFIER ADDRESS
a 0
b 4

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Two-Passes Assembly
 In the second pass, the assembler scans the input
again

 This time it translate each operation code into the

sequence of bits representing that operation in
machine language, it also translate each identifier
representing a location into the address given for that
identifier in the symbol table.

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Two-Passes Assembly

 The output of the second pass is usually relocatable

machine code, meaning that it can be loaded starting
at any location L in memory;

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Example
 The following is a hypothetical machine code for
previous example:

000101 00 00000000 *
0011 01 10 00000010
001001 00 00000000 *

Instruction code Register Address mode Memory address

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 If L = 00001111 i.e. 15 then a and b would be at
location 15 and 19, respectively, and the instructions
would now appear as absolute code:

000101 00 00001111
0011 01 10 00000010
001001 00 00010011

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Loader and Link-Editor
 It perform two functions of loading and link-editing
 Loading process consist of taking relocatable machine
code, altering the relocatable addresses and placing
the altered instruction and data in memory at proper
location.
 Link-Editor make a single program from several files of
relocatable machine code.

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The Grouping of Phases
 Activities from more than one phases can be grouped
together.

 Front and Back Ends

 Passes

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Front and Back Ends
 Front End consist of those phases, or part of phases that
depends primarily on the source language and are independent
of target machine. It normally includes:

1. Lexical analysis
2. Syntactic analysis
3. The creation of Symbol Table
4. Semantic analysis
5. The generation of Intermediate Code
6. Certain amount of Code optimization
7. Error Handling

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Front and Back Ends
 The Back End includes those portions of the
compiler that depend on the target machine, and are
independent of source language. It includes:

1. Code Optimization
2. Code Generation
3. Necessary Error handling and Symbol-Table
operations.

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Advantages of Front End and Back End
 If we want to write new compiler for the same machine
then only the Front End of the compiler change while
the Back End remain the same.

 Similarly if we want to write the compiler for new

machine then the front end of the compiler remain the
same and back end of the compiler is changed.

 It is also good idea to compile several different

languages into same intermediate language and use a
common back end for different front ends.
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Example:
 A C Language compiler may have more then one back
ends each for a different machines i.e.

C-Language Compiler
Front End

Back End Back End

IBM Apple

 It means that one back end will work for IBM Machine
and 2nd for Apple with a single front end
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Example:
 Suppose we have a C- Compiler with Front End and
Back End and now for FORTRON compiler we have
only to change its front end for FORTRAN and its Back
End will remain the same.
C-Compiler FORTRAN-Compiler
Front End Front End

Target Language
Back End

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Passes
 Several phases of compilation are usually implemented
in a single pass consisting of reading an input file and
writing an output file.

 The grouped phases must be interleaved during the

pass. For Example:

lexical analysis, syntax analysis, semantic analysis and

intermediate code generation might be grouped
together into one pass
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Passes
 It is desirable to have few passes, since it takes time to
read and write intermediate files.

 On the other hand, if we group several phases into one

pass, we may be forced to keep the entire program in
memory, because one phase may need information in
a different order than a previous phase produce it.

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