C2 Compiler Concepts

This book is about the translation of programs written in a high level programming language into machine code. It deals with all the major aspects of compilation systems (including many examples and exercises). Terminology for grammars and languages as well as basic analysing techniques are introduced before starting with lexical analysis and the organization of symbol tables. The two major techniques of syntax analysis, i.e. top-down analysis and bottom-up analysis, are discussed in detail. Along with semantic and type analysis, intermediate codes, syntax-directed translation, and type checking are introduced. The discussion of error handling is followed by detailed considerations on code generation and optimization. Finally a few remarks on the impacts of modern hardware developments are given. This book actually shows certain examples on how to implement the introduced concepts. It can be used both as a teachers' reference as well as a students' textbook.