Re: Pros and cons of high-level intermediate languages

boehm@parc.xerox.com (Hans Boehm) writes:


      [various specific problems with generating C code as the output
      of a compiler, related to GC, tail-recursion optimization, etc.]


      My impression is that for vaguely Pascal-like languages (e.g. Mesa),
      compiling through C generally loses very little performance, and may in
      fact win, if it's done sufficiently carefully. For Scheme or ML-like
      languages, life is a little harder. You either lose some performance, or
      you have to make some other compromises.


Since C does seem to be accepted and popular as an intermediate
language, it might be worth trying to get the C standard to
incorporate some features that make this particular use easier.


Thomas.
[How about some suggestions? Standards are supposed to codify existing
practice, though I freely admit that hasn't often been the case lately. -John]
--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.