License: 
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.EVCS.2023.22
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-177926
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2023/17792/
Reinders, Jaro S.
Towards Modular Compilation Using Higher-Order Effects
Abstract
Compilers transform a human readable source language into machine readable target language. Nanopass compilers simplify this approach by breaking up this transformation into small steps that are more understandable, maintainable, and extensible. We propose a semantics-driven variant of the nanopass compiler architecture exploring the use a effects and handlers to model the intermediate languages and the transformation passes, respectively. Our approach is fully typed and ensures that all cases in the compiler are covered. Additionally, by using an effect system we abstract over the control flow of the intermediate language making the compiler even more flexible. We apply this approach to a minimal compiler from a language with arithmetic and let-bound variables to a string of pretty printed X86 instructions. In the future, we hope to extend this work to compile a larger and more complicated language and we envision a formal verification framework from compilers written in this style.
BibTeX - Entry
@InProceedings{reinders:OASIcs.EVCS.2023.22,
author = {Reinders, Jaro S.},
title = {{Towards Modular Compilation Using Higher-Order Effects}},
booktitle = {Eelco Visser Commemorative Symposium (EVCS 2023)},
pages = {22:1--22:9},
series = {Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-267-9},
ISSN = {2190-6807},
year = {2023},
volume = {109},
editor = {L\"{a}mmel, Ralf and Mosses, Peter D. and Steimann, Friedrich},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2023/17792},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-177926},
doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.EVCS.2023.22},
annote = {Keywords: algebraic effects and handlers, higher-order effects, monadic semantics, modularity, compilation, nanopass}
}
