From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,3fc79ad704f81a40 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-03-09 11:40:43 PST Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news2.near.net!news.umass.edu!nic.umass.edu!twain.oit.umass.edu!cons116 From: cons116@twain.oit.umass.edu (Mike White) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Writing a Mac Ada compiler Date: 9 Mar 1995 19:25:56 GMT Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst Message-ID: <3jnko4$mpo@nic.umass.edu> References: <3jg167$a3l@nic.umass.edu> <3ji8rc$rj8@nic.umass.edu> <3jlibk$p5g@gnat.cs.nyu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: twain.oit.umass.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Date: 1995-03-09T19:25:56+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar (dewar@cs.nyu.edu) wrote: : Mike, at this stage, I am afraid your lack of familiarity with compiler : technology is showing. Writing a lexical analyzer and parser for Ada is : by comparison with the rest of the task simple, but even these very : simple tasks are by no means trivial, especially if you want to get : any kind of decent error messages. Very true. I DO lack familiarity with compiler technology. I am an undergrad with NO real-life experience in compiler design. I do, however, feel that I have an understanding of most of the pieces which go into a compiler, and was interested in seeing if I can pull those pieces together and learn something about overall compiler design. : As for the idea that the only remaining step is generating machine language, : I am afraid it seems that your cource on compilers gave a rather false : impression. The hard part of an Ada compiler is the semantic analysis. True. I definitely took a simplistic view of what a compiler is. This whole thread is based on an interest of mine which I wanted to get some input on, and I posted some things which I did not think through. (By the way, I have definitely decided against designing a compiler from scratch.) : [more] : As for porting GCC, this is a task that is probably about one twentieth the : effort of writing a compiler, but that too expects you to have significant : experience with GCC and the technology. If you are starting from scratch : and know little about compilers and processor architectures, you have a lot : to learn before you can succeed in such a port. : [more] I do sincerely appreciate these comments. I freely admit I am naive about compilers as my coursework has only provided me with a general background in computer science, and not much in compilers. However, my coursework _has_ included courses in computer architecture, assembly language, programming languages, software engineering, and operating systems. I have been programming Macs (under system 7) for about two years now, and have been programming in all sorts of languages on all sorts of machines for over ten years. This may or may not be enough experience to tackle such a chore as we are discussing here. I am currently taking a look at the gcc source, analyzing my abilities, and researching compiler technology. I am pretty honest with myself and if I do not see myself able to complete a robust port in a reasonable amount of time, trust me: I will not take up the project. mike white