Formalizing the Expertise of the Assembly Language Programmer

Abstract

A novel compiler strategy for generating high quality code is described. The quality of the code results from reimplementing the program in the target language using knowledge of the program's behavior. The research is a first step towards formalizing the expertise of the assembly language programmer. The ultimate goal is to formalize code generation and implementation techniques in the same way that parsing and code generation techniques have been formalized. An experimental code generator based on the reimplementation strategy will be constructed. The code generator will provide a framework for analyzing the costs, applicability, and effectiveness of various implementation techniques. Several common code generation problems will be studied. Code written by experienced programmers and code generated by a conventional optimizing compiler will provide standards of comparison.