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From: Fernando <pronesto@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Re: Are there "compiler generators"?
Date: Sun, 29 May 2022 05:00:47 -0700 (PDT)
Organization: Compilers Central
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Keywords: tools, theory
Posted-Date: 29 May 2022 18:17:18 EDT
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Hi Roger.

At least in theory, the Second Futamura Projection (of which there are three
of them) would generate a compiler. That's a way to do partial program
evaluation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_evaluation). There have been
research papers about it, demonstrating that one can indeed generate compilers
out of partial evaluation, eg.:

* An experiment in partial evaluation: the generation of a compiler generator.
ND Jones et al. 1985
* A compiler generator produced by a self-applicable specializer can have a
surprisingly natural and understandable structure. SA Romanenko, 1988
* Practical second Futamura projection: partial evaluation for
high-performance language interpreters. F Latifi, 2019
* Etc

Regards,

Fernando

On Saturday, May 28, 2022 at 11:16:21 PM UTC-3, Roger L Costello wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> There are lexer generators. Flex is a lexer generator.
> There are parser generators. Bison is a parser generator.
> Are there compiler generators?