Natural Semantics-Directed Generation of Compilers and Abstract Machines

In this paper we present the motivation, theory and transformations of our semantics-directed compiler generator. The main novelty of our generator is that it generates compilers and abstract machines. The execution times of the abstract machine programs produced by our generated compiler compare well to those of target programs produced by compilers generated by other semantics-directed generators. The generated specifications of compilers and abstract machines are suitable as a starting point for handwriting compilers and abstract machines. Our generator is fully automated and its core transformations are proved correct. Received May 1997 / Accepted in revised form May 2000