Compiler internals

This chapter describes the design of the compiler. The compiler consists a frontend, mid-end and back-end. The frontend deals with source file parsing and semantics checking. The mid-end performs optimizations. This is optional. The back-end generates machine code. The front-end produces intermediate code. This is a simple representation of the source. The back-end can accept this kind of representation.

The compiler is greatly influenced by the LLVM design.

digraph x { rankdir="LR" 1 [label="c3 source file"] 10 [label="c3 front end" ] 11 [label="language X front end" ] 20 [label="mid end" ] 30 [label="back end for X86" ] 31 [label="back end for ARM" ] 40 [label="object file"] 1 -> 10 10 -> 20 [label="IR-code"] 11 -> 20 [label="IR-code"] 20 -> 30 [label="IR-code"] 20 -> 31 [label="IR-code"] 30 -> 40 }

IR-code

The intermediate representation (IR) of a program de-couples the front end from the backend of the compiler.

See IR-code for details about all the available instructions.