language translation compilation vs. interpretation compilation diagram step 1: compile step 2: run...

Language Translation

Compilation vs. interpretation

Compilation diagram

Step 1: compile

Step 2: run

program Compiled programcompiler

input outputCompiled program


• compilation is translation from one language to another, where the translated form is typically easier to execute; a pure compiler produces language that will be directly executed by hardware

• compilation allows one translation and then multiple executions of the executable file (sometimes called a binary file, or load module); thus a fairly large amount of time can be spent by the compiler doing analysis and optimization once, in order to produce an executable that runs quickly each time it is run

• a compiled program typically runs fast but is harder to debug

• compiler example: gcc


Interpretation diagram

single step program

interpreter

input

output


• interpretation skips the intermediate step of producing a form of the program in another language and combines translation and execution

• interpretation starts from the source code each time you want to run the program; it performs the same analysis as a compiler but on a source-line-by-source-line basis;

• a pure interpreter keeps no results from this analysis even when encountering the same source line repeatedly within the body of a loop (this means an interpreted program will run faster if you make all the variable and function names only one or two characters in length and remove all the comments -- but I don't recommend doing this!)


• an interpreted program typically runs slow but is easier to debug because of better run-time error diagnostics

• interpreted languages easily support dynamic typing and dynamic scoping of variables

• interpreter examples: shells, m4 or python on the command line; also, formatted I/O (e.g., printf) relies on interpretation


hybrid approach diagram

Step 1:

Step 2:

program byte codecompiler

byte code

outputJ VM

input


• Java compiler and JVM interpreter - a hybrid translation model

− "javac" produces byte code, which is easy to interpret

− "java" interprets byte code

• provides for portability of byte code files across numerous systems

• Perl also has a hybrid translation model


• other hybrid translation models include just-in-time (JIT) compilers, which compile functions/procedures at run-time, on the first call

• terminology - source code that needs to be compiled is typically

− called a "program" while source code that is interpreted may be

− called a "script" (but may be called a "program" also)

Major translators in the compilation model

1. language preprocessor - textual substitution and conditional compilation (direct execution of special statements)

2. compiler - lexical analysis, parsing, code generation, optimization

3. macro processor - textual substitution and conditional assembly

4. assembler - translate symbols into addresses and machine code

Major translators in the compilation model

5. linker - external symbol resolution plus relocation, produces executable

6. loader - relocation according to load address, produces memory image

(note many compilers generate object code directly - without calling a separate assembler)

Compile steps

assemblylanguage

(.s)(.asm)

source(.c)

expandedsourcecode

object code(.o)

(.obj)

executableload module

(a.out)(.exe)

assemblysource

w/ macros (.m)

library routine

languagepreprocessor

(cpp)

compiler(ccom).

compiletime

assembler(as).

linker(ld).

macroexpansion and

conditionalcompilation

assemblytime

linktime.

macro processor(m4)

macro expansion and conditional assembly

staticlinking

Load and run steps

search for file name

executable(load module)

(a.out)(.exe)

library files(Microsoft

DLL)

shared objects(.so)

command interpreter(shell) loader

fetch/decode/execute in CPU

load-time linking(early Windows)

dynamic linking

run-time linking(most systems)

memory . . . . . (. . . machine langguage. . . . .). .image. . . . . . . (. . . instructions and data . . . ). . . .

Translators (language preprocessor, e.g, for C)

− special syntax for preprocessor statements, e.g., #include

− macro facility, #define - trivially used for constant substitution

− conditional compilation, #ifdef - used for versioning

#ifdef VERBOSE

printf( "value of a is %d\n", a );

#endif

where "#define VERBOSE" is included in the program source or where you compile with "gcc -DVERBOSE"

Translators (compiler)

− lexical analysis: extracting lexical items ("tokens") from the input

− syntactic analysis: parsing statements according to the grammar rules of the language, generates a parse tree

− semantic analysis: determining the meaning of operations according to the datatypes of the variables in the parse tree, may involve adding conversion operators to the parse tree

− intermediate code generation


− machine-independent optimizations, e.g., loop transformations

− machine-specific code generation and register allocation

− machine-dependent optimizations, e.g., branch delay slot scheduling


consider the statement a = b + 2*c; in the following code

float a,b; extern float c; ... a = b + 2*c; ...

lexical analysis extracts eight tokens and assigns symbolic identifiers to entries in the symbol table

`a' `=' `b' `+' `2' `*' `c' `;'

symtab[0] `= ' symtab[1] `+' `2' `*' symtab[2] `;'


syntactic analysis builds a parse tree

=

/ \

symtab[0] +

/ \

symtab[1] *

/ \

`2' symtab[2]


semantic analysis determines meaning

=:float

/ \

symtab[0]:float +:float

/ \

symtab[1]:float *:float

/ \

convert_to_float symtab[2]:float

|

`2'


intermediate code generation yields something like

convert_to_float( 2 , temp_float_0 )

multiply_float( temp_float_0 , symtab[2] , temp_float_1 )

add_float( symtab[1] , temp_float_1 , temp_float_2 )

store_float( temp_float_2 , symtab[0] )


machine-independent optimization goes ahead and either does the conversion at compile time or strength reduces the multiply by 2 to an add

add_float( symtab[2] , symtab[2] , temp_float_1 )

add_float( symtab[1] , temp_float_1 , temp_float_2 )

store_float( temp_float_2 , symtab[0] )

from this registers would be assigned and ARM code would be generated (including storage allocation and addressing for variables)

Translators (macro processor)

− simple abstraction through textual substitution ("open" subroutines)

− provides either keyword or positional parameter substitution

− extends instruction set by synthesizing instructions using macro definitions


− cost occurs at assembly time of expanding macro definition, not at run

− time of procedure call, register save/restore, and procedure return

− conditional assembly is same idea as #ifdef facility of C preprocessor


comparison of macro with run-time functions

macro function

invocation in-line substitution run-time call and return

parameters untyped typed

evaluated at each evaluated once at time appearance of call

trade-offs fast but one copy of more overhead per call but code at each call site only one copy of code

Translators (assembler)

• translates program written in assembly language to binary machine code

• resolving local symbolic addresses; typically this is 1-to-1 translation

Translators (assembler)

• forward references generally require 2-pass assemblers

pass 1: find symbolic labels and assign them addresses

run location counter (virtual instruction pointer)

determine instruction size

record addresses in symbol table

pass 2: use symbol table information to construct instructions

symbolic -> binary

alternative to 2-pass approach is 1-pass with fixup (i.e., backpatching)

other assembler facilities include data layout directives (pseudo-ops)

Translators (linker)

separate assembly or compilation means the assembler does not know all the addresses, thus the assembler produces only partially-resolved object files

linker combines separate object files into a single executable

− layout pieces of code & data (storage allocation based on sizes)

− resolve external references

− perform relocation of absolute addresses

•


two pass:

1. assign code and data to memory addresses and build symbol table from public symbols

2. use table to resolve external addresses and produce load module


• object module file format (this is early UNIX; ELF is more complex)

- header (includes sizes of text, data, and bss sections)

- text section (read only)

- data section (read/write)

- relocation/external symbol entries for text section

- relocation/external symbol entries for data section

- symbol table

- string table (symbol table entries index into string table)

Translators (command interpreter)

• command interpreter (shell) - a program that reads command lines from the keyboard (or from a script file) and either directly executes the command or searches for an executable file having that command name and then loadsand branches to that loaded program

Translators (loader)

• bring a program into memory in preparation for execution

• read file header to find size of pieces

• allocate memory area(s)

• read instructions and data from file into memory

• relocation - adjusting absolute addresses relative to load point

• jump to startup code

Binding times

The assembler, linker, and loader are all programs taking input files and producing output.

Decisions and translations made by these programs are said to be done at "assembly time", at "link time", and at "run time", respectively.

Actual execution (i.e., instruction interpretation by the hardware, such as performing adds, branches, etc.) takes place at "run time".

Binding times

• During execution, you can also talk of things happening at specific times, such as register saving at procedure call time.

• Dynamic linking is an example of a late decision, or "late binding".

− It is the linking of separate procedures at either load time or run time,

− and it typically requires that the normal (static) linker include a simple table that names the needed routines (for load-time linking) or include simple "stub" routines that find and link to the shared library routines on their first calls (for run-time linking).

Binding times

• Another form of delayed binding is "just-in-time" (JIT). This is used in several Java compilers, where methods are not compiled until the first call.

− Many storage allocation decisions are made at each step. For example, offsets are assigned to labels at assembly time, under the assumption that

− any absolute addresses will be updated by the linker and loader later.

(When we later study virtual memory, we will see that it is also an example of late binding - specifically one where physical memory allocation decisions that might be made by a traditional loader are instead deferred to run time and made by the operating system.)

other programming tools

other programming tools / components of a program development environment

editors (e.g., vim, gedit, emacs)

beautifiers (e.g., indent)

project control (e.g., make)

version control (e.g., sccs)

GUI toolkit (e.g., widget library)

test coverage (e.g., gcov)

debuggers (e.g., gdb, dbx, ddd)

other programming tools

debugging tools (e.g., Purify)

reading or writing beyond the bounds of an array

reading or writing freed memory

freeing memory multiple times

reading uninitialized memory

reading or writing through null pointers

overflowing the stack by recursive function calls

reading or writing memory addresses on which a watch-point has been set

portability advisors (e.g., lint)

style checkers (e.g., CodeCheck)

exceeding a given input line length

exceeding a given nesting depth of if-else stmts.

not aligning open and close curly braces (Horstmann)

performance profilers (e.g., gprof)

language translation compilation vs. interpretation compilation diagram step 1: compile step 2: run...

Documents

hybrid translation model

interpreted program

interpretation slide

machine code slide

hybrid translation models

hybrid translation model

terminology source code

compilation model