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Section C.22 O1: Compiler Introduction (Syntax Analysis, Static Semantics)

Synopsis.

  • Program is just a stream of characters
  • Lexer forms “words” (called tokens) from characters and can already detect lexical errors.
  • Parser checks if token stream adheres to concrete syntax. If yes, it builds the AST, if not, it reports errors.
  • However, not all syntactically correct programs are valid C programs.
  • They can violate static semantics: types don't match.
  • Analyzing static semantics (“semantic analysis”) can detect such errors and discard erroneous programs.
  • As a side effect, it elaborates types which we need later on for code generation.
  • Language is statically type-safe if well-typed programs don't get stuck.
  • Discuss examples of C programs that are well-typed but get stuck and discuss how Java solves these problems.
  • Introduce type system for C0 (Section 6.6): relation of a type environment, an expression, and its type.
  • Define typing rules inductively over the syntax.

Sections Covered.