Engineering a Compiler, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7. Code Shape

To translate an application program, the compiler must map each source-language statement into a sequence of one or more operations in the target machine's instruction set. The compiler must chose among many alternative ways to implement each construct. Those choices have a strong and direct impact on the quality of the code that the compiler eventually produces.

This chapter explores some of the implementation strategies that the compiler can employ for a variety of common programming-language constructs.

Keywords: Code Generation, Control Structures, Expression Evaluation

7.1. Introduction

When the compiler translates application code into executable form, it faces myriad choices about specifc details, such as the organization ...