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Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming

Authors:

Austin T. Clements,

Frans Kaashoek,

Eddie KohlerAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, Volume 36, Issue 1

Pages 244 - 254

https://doi.org/10.1145/1353534.1346312

Published: 01 March 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Today's system programmers go to great lengths to extend the languages in which they program. For instance, system-specific compilers find errors in Linux and other systems, and add support for specialized control flow to Qt and event-based programs. These compilers are difficult to build and cannot always understand each other's language changes. However, they can greatly improve code understandability and correctness, advantages that should be accessible to all programmers.

We describe an extension-oriented compiler for C called xoc. An extension-oriented compiler, unlike a conventional extensible compiler, implements new features via many small extensions that are loaded together as needed. Xoc gives extension writers full control over program syntax and semantics while hiding many compiler internals. Xoc programmers concisely define powerful compiler extensions that, by construction, can be combined; even some parts of the base compiler, such as GNU C compatibility, are structured as extensions.

Xoc is based on two key interfaces. Syntax patterns allow extension writers to manipulate language fragments using concrete syntax. Lazy computation of attributes allows extension writers to use the results of analyses by other extensions or the core without needing to worry about pass scheduling.

Extensions built using xoc include xsparse, a 345-line extension that mimics Sparse, Linux's C front end, and xlambda, a 170-line extension that adds function expressions to C. An evaluation of xoc using these and 13 other extensions shows that xoc extensions are typically more concise than equivalent extensions written for conventional extensible compilers and that it is possible to compose extensions.

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Cited By

Kramer LVan Wyk ESaraiva JDegueule TScott E(2023)Sharing Trees and Contextual Information: Re-imagining Forwarding in Attribute GrammarsProceedings of the 16th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering10.1145/3623476.3623520(56-69)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623476.3623520
Disney TFaubion NHerman DFlanagan C(2014)Sweeten your JavaScriptACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2775052.266109750:2(35-44)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2775052.2661097
Renggli LGîrba TNierstrasz O(2010)Embedding languages without breaking toolsProceedings of the 24th European conference on Object-oriented programming10.5555/1883978.1884006(380-404)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1883978.1884006
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Index Terms

Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers

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Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming
ASPLOS '08

Today's system programmers go to great lengths to extend the languages in which they program. For instance, system-specific compilers find errors in Linux and other systems, and add support for specialized control flow to Qt and event-based programs. ...
Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming
ASPLOS XIII: Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems

Today's system programmers go to great lengths to extend the languages in which they program. For instance, system-specific compilers find errors in Linux and other systems, and add support for specialized control flow to Qt and event-based programs. ...
Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming
ASPLOS '08

Today's system programmers go to great lengths to extend the languages in which they program. For instance, system-specific compilers find errors in Linux and other systems, and add support for specialized control flow to Qt and event-based programs. ...

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News

ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News Volume 36, Issue 1

ASPLOS '08

March 2008

339 pages

ISSN:0163-5964

DOI:10.1145/1353534

Issue’s Table of Contents

ASPLOS XIII: Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems
March 2008
352 pages
ISBN:9781595939586
DOI:10.1145/1346281
General Chair:
Susan Eggers
University of Washington, USA
,
Program Chair:
James Larus
Microsoft Research, USA

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2008

Published in SIGARCH Volume 36, Issue 1

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Cited By

Kramer LVan Wyk ESaraiva JDegueule TScott E(2023)Sharing Trees and Contextual Information: Re-imagining Forwarding in Attribute GrammarsProceedings of the 16th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering10.1145/3623476.3623520(56-69)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623476.3623520
Disney TFaubion NHerman DFlanagan C(2014)Sweeten your JavaScriptACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2775052.266109750:2(35-44)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2775052.2661097
Renggli LGîrba TNierstrasz O(2010)Embedding languages without breaking toolsProceedings of the 24th European conference on Object-oriented programming10.5555/1883978.1884006(380-404)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1883978.1884006
Renggli LGîrba TNierstrasz O(2010)Embedding Languages without Breaking ToolsECOOP 2010 – Object-Oriented Programming10.1007/978-3-642-14107-2_19(380-404)Online publication date: 2010
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14107-2_19
Renggli LGîrba TDucasse SBergel ABouraqadi N(2009)Why Smalltalk wins the host languages shootoutProceedings of the International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies10.1145/1735935.1735954(107-113)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1735935.1735954
Seitz KFoley TPorumbescu SOwens J(2019)Staged metaprogramming for shader system developmentACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/3355089.335655438:6(1-15)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3355089.3356554
Carlson TVan Wyk E(2017)Type qualifiers as composable language extensionsACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3170492.313605552:12(91-103)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3170492.3136055
Kaminski TKramer LCarlson TVan Wyk E(2017)Reliable and automatic composition of language extensions to C: the ableC extensible language frameworkProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/31382241:OOPSLA(1-29)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2017
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Carlson TVan Wyk EFlatt MErdweg S(2017)Type qualifiers as composable language extensionsProceedings of the 16th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences10.1145/3136040.3136055(91-103)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2017
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Omar CAldrich J(2016)Programmable semantic fragments: the design and implementation of typyACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3093335.299324552:3(81-92)Online publication date: 20-Oct-2016
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