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One‐pass compilation at its limits — A modula‐2 compiler for the xerox dragon computer
Author(s) -
Gutknecht Juerg
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/spe.4380170705
Subject(s) - compiler , computer science , workstation , simple (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , programming language , operating system , parallel computing , stack (abstract data type) , philosophy , epistemology
We present conceptual and implementation aspects of a one‐pass Modula‐2 compiler that was developed by Xerox PARC's future Dragon workstation. Dragon features several architectural innovations. Among them are a reduced instruction set and a stack of fast registers used to store local data. This paper emphasizes problems and solutions connected with one‐pass compilation. Although a little out of fashion at present, this simple method, if appropriately applied, turns out to be surprisingly powerful.