Programming Language Basics in Compiler Design




Programming Language Basics

To design an efficient compiler, we should know some language basics.

Programming Language Basics

Programming Language Basics

Static and Dynamic Distinction

  • Static - Events occur at compile time.
  • Dynamic - Events occur at run time.

Example

  • The scope of a declaration of x is the region of the program in which uses of x refer to this declaration.
  • A language uses static scope or lexical scope if it is possible to determine the scope of a declaration by looking only at the program.
  • Otherwise, the language uses dynamic scope. With dynamic scope, as the program runs, the same use of x could refer to any of several different declarations of x.

Environment and States

  • The environment is mapping from names to locations in the store. Since variables refer to locations, we could alternatively define an environment as a mapping from names to variables.
  • The state is a mapping from locations in store to their values.
 Environment and States

Environment and States

Static Scope and Block Structure

  • The scope rules for C are based on program structure. The scope of a declaration is determined implicitly by where the declaration appears in the program.
  • Programming languages such as C++, Java, and C#, also provide explicit control over scopes through the use of keywords like public, private, and protected.
  • A block is a grouping of declarations and statements. C uses braces { and } to delimit a block, the alternative use of begin and end in some languages.
 Static Scope and Block Structure

Static Scope and Block Structure

Read Also

Explict Access Control

  • Classes and structures introduce a new scope for their members.
  • If p is an object of a class with a field (member) x, then the use of x in p.x refers to field x in the class definition.
  • Through the use of keywords like public, private, and protected, object oriented languages such as C++ or Java provide explicit control over access to member names in a super class. These keywords support encapsulation by restricting access.
    • Public - Public names are accessible from outside the class
    • Private - Private names include method declarations and definitions associated with that class and any "friend" classes.
    • Protected - Protected names are accessible to subclasses.

Dynamic Scope

  • The term dynamic scope, however, usually refers to the following policy: a use of a name x refers to the declaration of x in the most recently called procedure with such a declaration.
  • Dynamic scoping of this type appears only in special situations. The two dynamic policies are:

Since dynamic scoping is very uncommon in the familiar languages, we consider the following code as our example.

Sample Code

int x = 10; 
  
// Called by g() 
int f() 
{ 
   return x; 
} 
  
// g() has its own variable 
// named as x and calls f() 
int g() 
{ 
   int x = 20; 
   return f(); 
} 
  
main() 
{ 
  printf(g()); 
}

Output

20

Parameter Passing Mechanisms

  • Every language has some method for passing parameters to functions and procedures.
  • Formal Parameters: The identifier used in a method to stand for the value that is passed into the method by a caller.
  • Actual Parameters: The actual value that is passed into the method by a caller.
    • Call by Value - The actual parameter is evaluated (if it is an expression) or copied (if it is a variable) in a formal parameter.
    • Call by Reference - The address of the actual parameter is passed as value of the corresponding formal parameter.
    • Call by Name - The Called object execute as if the actual parameter were substituted literally for the formal parameter.
 Formal and Actual Parameter

Formal and Actual Parameter

Aliasing

  • When two names refer to the same location in memory.
  • There is an interesting consequence of call-by-reference parameter passing or its simulation, as in Java, where references to objects are passed by value.
  • It is possible that two formal parameters can refer to the same location; such variables are said to be aliases of one another.
  • As a result, any two variables, which may appear to take their values from two distinct formal parameters, can become aliases of each other.
 Aliasing

Aliasing



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