40 year old compilers

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Someone in comp.lang.c is interested in understanding how a 40 years
old C compilers works, but doesn't know much about compilers.

Seems to me that one way to learn is to read 40 year old compiler books.

I still have http://www.amazon.com/dp/047132776X (Gries) that I bought
about 35 years ago, but that might not be the best to understand
C compilers.

So, I wonder (cross post replies) about favorite 40 year old compiler
books, especially if written using C-like languages for examples, or
otherwise better than average for understanding C compilers.

Most should be availabl for low prices on the used book market.
Gries is $0.01 plus $3.99 for shipping.

For a description of the development of C, and a few other languages,
one might look at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578700094 only about 15
years old, and available used starting at $0.80 (plus shipping).

-- glen
[Seventh edition Unix C compiler description here http://plan9.bell-labs.com/7thEdMan/vol2/ctour.bun ]

 

[Anton Ertl]

So, I wonder (cross post replies) about favorite 40 year old compiler
books, especially if written using C-like languages

I like [wulf+75]; however, that's mostly about optimizing, and I don't
think that C compilers of that time had serious ambitions in that
direction.

Given that C compilers from 1973 came from Bell Labs, and Al Aho
worked at Bell Labs, the books he coauthored around that time might
fit the bill.

@Book{wulf+75,
author = {William Wulf and Richard K. Johnsson and Charles
B. Weinstock and Steven O. Hobbs and Charles M. Geschke},
title = {The Design of an Optimizing Compiler},
publisher = {Elsvier},
year = {1975},
isbn = {0-444-0164-6},
annote = {Describes a complete Bliss/11 compiler for the
PDP-11. It uses some interesting techniques: it
uses a (hand-constructed) tree parsing automaton for
parts of the code selection (Section~3.4); it
optimizes the use of unary complement operators
(Section~3.3); it uses a smart scheme to represent
a conservative approximation of the lifetime of
variables in constant space and uses that for
register allocation (Sections~4.1.3 and~4.3).}
}

- anton

 

[William Clodius]

Someone in comp.lang.c is interested in understanding how a 40 years
old C compilers works, but doesn't know much about compilers.

How good is the interested party in reading assembler. The 7094 emulator
comes with ithe Fortran compiler, more than fifty years old as of this
date.
http://www.piercefuller.com/oldibm-shadow/709x.html

 

[Derek M. Jones]

glen,

Someone in comp.lang.c is interested in understanding how a 40 years
old C compilers works, but doesn't know much about compilers.

This begs the question of what is the oldest compiler still in
production use.

Here is a non-C candidate:
http://shape-of-code.coding-guideli...e-oldest-compiler-still-in-production-use-is/

Seems to me that one way to learn is to read 40 year old compiler books.

They don't always reflect reality on the ground.

Here is a 30 year old C compiler:
http://www.desmet-c.com/

and of course the grandaddy of them all:
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/primevalC.html

 

[Jorgen Grahn]

So, I wonder (cross post replies) about favorite 40 year old compiler
books, especially if written using C-like languages

I like [wulf+75]; however, that's mostly about optimizing, and I don't
think that C compilers of that time had serious ambitions in that
direction.

Given that C compilers from 1973 came from Bell Labs, and Al Aho
worked at Bell Labs, the books he coauthored around that time might
fit the bill.

There's also the CSTR series of technical reports from Bell Labs itself:

http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cstr.html
http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cstr/bib

A lot of them relate to compilers (but not all are available online,
not from Bell Labs anyway).

/Jorgen

 

[Charles Richmond]

How good is the interested party in reading assembler. The 7094 emulator

comes with ithe Fortran compiler, more than fifty years old as of this
date. http://www.piercefuller.com/oldibm-shadow/709x.html

I'd be interested in reading Xerox Data Systems... Sigma 9 assembly
language.

 

[mark.bluemel]

and of course the grandaddy of them all:

http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/primevalC.html

Recursion: See Recursion

 

[Janis Papanagnou]

Am 03.06.2013 02:14, schrieb glen herrmannsfeldt:

Someone in comp.lang.c is interested in understanding how a 40 years
old C compilers works, but doesn't know much about compilers.

Seems to me that one way to learn is to read 40 year old compiler books. ...

Have a look at books from Aho and Ullman. Those are well written
(IMO) and were quasi standard to read hereabouts around the late
1970's and 1980's.

Janis
[That's the classic 1977 Dragon Book, rather than the more recent
and much more expensive editions. Link to Amazon"
http://net.gurus.org/bk/a/0201000229 -John]