Presidential Young Investigator Award: "Semantics-based Generation of Optimizing Compilers"

编写正式的 编程语言。 一个“正式”的基本好处是 语义学”的一个重要特征是它构成了一个明确的参考标准 与之相对的是，关于程序的意义的问题可以得到回答。 此外，它还作为数学推理的基础， 程序，例如为了优化的目的。 虽然这些 当然是实际的好处，语言的其他语用方面 通常不会反映在正式的语义中，例如 编译时和运行时的区别，是否自动 需要垃圾收集等等。 在以前的研究中，一种称为“高级语义学”的技术， 提出了解决其中一些问题的建议。 主要结果是 对于类似Pascal的语言，高级语义允许人们 自动生成逼真的编译器。 可惜这 这项技术不容易扩展到更高级的语言 结合了多态性、非严格性、并发性等概念 和/或其它信息。 低级功能，如指针算术和 volatile变量也可以防止问题。 也许最重要的是， 基于语义的优化技术难以结合。 在这个项目中，形式化描述和自动 实现这些高级语言功能和优化将 发展。 目标是自动生成几乎实用的 高级语言的编译器。

It is becoming standard practice to write formal descriptions of programming languages. The fundamental benefit of a "formal semantics" is that it constitutes an unambiguous standard of reference against which questions about the meaning of programs can be answered. Also, it serves as the basis for mathematical reasoning about programs, for instance for the purposes of optimization. While these certainly are practical benefits, other pragmatic aspects of languages are not normally reflected in a formal semantics, such as the distinction between compile-time and run-time, whether automatic garbage collection is needed, and so on. In previous research, a technique called "high-level semantics" was proposed which addressed some of these issues. The main result was that for Pascal-like languages, high-level semantics allows one to generate realistic compilers automatically. Unfortunately, this technique does not extend easily to more advanced languages incorporating such notions as polymorphism, nonstrictness, concurrency and so forth. Low-level features such as pointer arithmetic and volatile variables also prevent problems. Perhaps most importantly, semantics-based optimization techniques are hard to incorporate. In this project, techniques for formally describing and automatically implementing such advanced languages features and optimizations will be developed. The goal is to automatically generate nearly practical compilers for advanced languages.