Re: Wanted: introductory book on compiler construction

Olli Plohmann wrote:
>I looking for an introductory/beginner level book on compiler
>construction. I have found some interesting books. Unhappily, I
>haven't found one that describes a compiler for an Intel box. ...


There was "A Small C Compiler" by James E. Hendrix (M & T Publishing).
I believe the book is now out of print. You might be able to find it
in used-book stores.


This book details a compiler which generates 8086 assembly language
code for a subset of C. There is a chapter on the 8086 code generated
for many of the C features. And there is an appendix explaining the
8086 architecture.


The compiler also sports a peephole optimizer. An interesting part is
the ability of the optimizer to match a PUSH with its corresponding
POP, and the ability to take advantage of this.


The compiler is a self-compiler, and an 8086 assembler (generating
.OBJ files) has been written with it. And the Payne-Hendrix library
has a lot of functions. So the compiler is very usable.


The compiler was developed when Microsoft still bundled a linker with
MS-DOS, so a linker was never written (to my knowledge).
--
Henry S. Takeuchi
htak@eskimo.com
Seattle, Washington (USA)
[This book is recommended in the FAQ. It's definitely out of print, so
try the library. -John]


--

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