# Questions tagged [compilers]

Questions about programs that read code in one language (source language) and translate it into an equivalent program in another language (target language).

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### Is call stack compile time or runtime detail?

I'm sorry if the question is quite naive, but I don't understand if a call stack is a language implementation detail or it depends on OS? What I'm trying to understand is what decides how to store ...
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### Are there any educational virtual machines?

There is plenty of machine/assembly languages such as LC-3, DLX, etc. designed for educational purposes. I am looking for an educational VM, by VM I mean stack virtual machine that has instructions ...
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### does a non-terminated string count as a token in c?

so, I am preparing for an exam which includes lexical analysis from compiler design. I was wondering what is the number of tokens in the following code- ...
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### Is type-checking “syntactic” or “semantic”?

On the wikipedia page on compilers, it says: Semantic analysis adds semantic information to the parse tree and builds the symbol table. This phase performs semantic checks such as type checking (...
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### Is Constant Folding a type of Memoization?

I was reading about Constant Folding and it sounds very similar to Memoization so I suspect that it indeed is a type of memoization but I've done some searching and can't find a solid answer (in ...
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### How to translate automaton (Turing machine) into the program of high level programming language?

Every program in high level ("industrial") programming language can be expresses as some Turing machine. I guess, that there exists universal algorithm for doing that (e.g. one can take the Cartesian ...
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### What are the errors in the following program?

Consider the following C code: ...
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### Grammar is LL(1) or not?

S -> AS | b A -> SA | a I get FIRST of S = {a,b} for S->AS and FIRST of S = {b} for S->b Hence FIRST(AS) ∩ FIRST (b) is not a disjoint This is not LL(1) But I checked this site http://smlweb.cpsc....
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### What happens with register usage in deeply nested functions calls (in theory)?

I am far from being able to construct a meaningful test for this using godbolt or some C compilation tool. But basically I am wondering what it would look like to have deeply nested function calls, ...
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### LR(1) parsing, problem with look ahead symbols

I understand the concept of LR(1) parsing and lookahead symbols. I have the solution to the exercise and it does not agree with my solution. I'm trying to fill the LR(1) parsing table for the grammar ...
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### Run-Time environments

I was reading about Run-Time Environments. In the Dragon book (2nd ed.) I came across the following presentation: [To implement abstractions, the] compiler ...
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### Compiler optimization which does an SMT-like optimization in software?

Say I had two functions called one after the other: ...
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### Proper algorithm for resolving ambiguity in grammars via enforcing associativity and precedence rules

I was told there is a algorithm that always resolves ambiguity for grammars that have issues with precedence and associativity. I know ambiguity in general is undecidable, so I only want to resolve ...
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### Syntax Directed Translation Scheme for Postfix to Infix Notation

I'm reading Compilers Principles, Techniques and Tools textbook and I encountered a problem from exercise 2.3 We have to construct a syntax-directed translation scheme that translates arithmetic ...
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### Converting from cfg to cnf (Chomsky normal form)

I am trying to convert this grammar from context free grammar with kleene star productions into the Chomsky normal form equivalent. I am having a hard time trying to understand how to do this, I need ...
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### When and how to generate parse tree while top down parsing

I am trying to build a parser that will eventually output a 3 address code. My question is, how do I build the parser to go from parsing in a table driven top down parsing to then give me a parse ...
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### Does a simple calculator have compilers?

When I input something wrong in my Casio fx-82MS calculator it shows Syntax error on its screen. So does even a simple calculation on a most simple calculator like this goes through compilation ...
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### Do compilers of high programming languages always compile them directly to machine code?

As an amateur Bash/JavaScript scripter who never wrote one sentence in Assembly, I ask: Do compilers of high programming languages always compile them directly to machine code, or are there cases ...
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### question about LL(1) and LR(0)

If grammar is an $LL(1)$ and does not contain any null production (i.e $V \rightarrow \epsilon$) then does that grammar necessarily be an $LR(0)$ grammar? I have tried to find counterexample for ...
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### Minimal DFA for “$n$th character from the right is $a$” [duplicate]

I am given the following regular expression, which accepts all strings over $\{a,b,c\}$ whose $n$th character from the right is $a$: $$(a|b|c)^*a(a|b|c)^{n-1}.$$ The exercise asks for the number ...
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### Does assembly language get translated to binary code? If so, is assembly language portable across machines?

I've tried to find the answer through Google but I've come across conflicting uses of terminology, so I just wanted to be absolutely clear. Here is my understanding: High level code written in a ...
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### Using DPDA instead of LR parsers

If LR parsers handle only DCFLs than why we don't just use dpda to parse these languages? What are advantages of using LR parsers over DPDA? Is it that it is easy to built autonomously or something ...
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### Why is empty in this Abstract Syntax Tree?

I given the following code to write as AST: { a = 4; while (a<10) if (a<5) a = a+5; else a = a+3; } ...
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### How to determine valid handle for given bottom up parser?

I came across following question: Consider the grammar: $E → E + n\text{ | }E × n\text{ | }n$ For a sentence n + n × n, the handles in the right-sentential form of the reduction are (...
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### Which parser has the highest reduce moves?

From what I have learned the number of reducing moves in the parsers are generally in the order LR(0)>= SLR(1) >= LALR(1). But I am unable to understand where should I place CLR(1) in this ...
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### Compiler implement power method with syntax graph

We learn how to write compiler. I know that we can use grammar to construct a parser for compiler or otherwise use a syntax graph to represent grammar and generate code when move on it's node. our ...
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### What is the Purpose of Augmented Grammar in LR parsers?

I was reading the LR() parsers from the Dragon Book where I came across these lines: To construct canonical LR(0) collection for a grammar, we define an augmented grammar and 2 functions, CLOSURE ...
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### Does SLR(0), LALR(0) exists?

I read about LL(1), LR(0), SLR(1) and LALR(1) in many online sources and even in dragon book. However I found that no one talks about LL(0), SLR(0) and LALR(0). So I googled and come up against these ...
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### Are shift and goto moves for all LR parsers ( LR(0), SLR(1),CLR(1),LALR(1) ) same?

I understand the difference in the parsing tables of the above 4 parsers. I understand that CLR>LALR>SLR>LR(0) in terms of power. Are shift and goto moves for all LR parsers ( LR(0), SLR(1),CLR(1),...
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### Proving correctness of LR parser facts

I have came across following facts while reading some compilers related text. However I did not find them in any standard reference book (mainly dragon book). Are they correct? If yes, how can we ...
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### How making non LL, non LR grammar a valid LL grammar, also makes it a valid LR grammar? Is there any connection between LL and LR conflicts?

I might unncecessarily overthinking here, but I had this weird possibly meaning less doubt: When grammar is neither LL nor LR, it means, both LL and LR parsing tables involve conflicts. LL parsing ...
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### Compiler - Why is the grammar not suitable for shift-reduce

Consider this example: stmt => if (expr) stmt | if (expr) stmt else stmt | other Why can't we use shift-reduce on this? This is a compiler homework and I ...
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### Are all compilers Turing Machines?

So the definition of a compiler I got is that: A compiler takes a string as input and checks if that string is syntactically correct, then outputs "Yes" or "No". So does that mean all compilers ...
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### Choosing algorithms and/or data structures at runtime based on input characteristics

I've been reading about Adaptive Computing, i.e. the idea of computer programs taking feedback from the environment at runtime to improve the output in some way. More precisely, my current focus is in ...