UNIT -I

OVERVIEW OF LANGUAGE PROCESSING

OVERVIEW OF LANGUAGE PROCESSING:

Preprocessor
A preprocessor produce input to compilers. They may perform the following functions.
1. Macro processing: A preprocessor may allow a user to define macros that are short
hands for longer constructs.
2. File inclusion: A preprocessor may include header files into the program text.
3. Rational preprocessor: these preprocessors augment older languages with more
modern flow-of-control and data structuring facilities.
4. Language Extensions: These preprocessor attempts to add capabilities to the language
by certain amounts to build-in macro

COMPILER

Compiler is a translator program that translates a program written in (HLL) the source
program and translate it into an equivalent program in (MLL) the target program. As an
important part of a compiler is error showing to the programmer.

Source pgm target pgm

Compiler

Error msg
Executing a program written n HLL programming language is basically of two parts. the
source program must first be compiled translated into a object program. Then the results
object program is loaded into a memory executed.

Source pgm obj pgm

Compiler

Obj pgm input Obj pgm opj pgm output

ASSEMBLER: programmers found it difficult to write or read programs in machine

language. They begin to use a mnemonic (symbols) for each machine instruction, which
they would subsequently translate into machine language. Such a mnemonic machine
language is now called an assembly language. Programs known as assembler were
written to automate the translation of assembly language in to machine language. The
input to an assembler program is called source program, the output is a machine language
translation (object program).

INTERPRETER: An interpreter is a program that appears to execute a source

program as if it were machine language.

Languages such as BASIC, SNOBOL, LISP can be translated using interpreters. JAVA also
uses interpreter. The process of interpretation can be carried out in following phases.
1. Lexical analysis
2. Synatx analysis
3. Semantic analysis
4. Direct Execution

Advantages:

Modification of user program can be easily made and implemented as execution

proceeds.
Type of object that denotes a various may change dynamically.
Debugging a program and finding errors is simplified task for a program used for
interpretation.
The interpreter for the language makes it machine independent.
Disadvantages:

The execution of the program is slower.

Memory consumption is more.

2 Loader and Link-editor:

Once the assembler procedures an object program, that program must be placed into
memory and executed. The assembler could place the object program directly in memory
and transfer control to it, thereby causing the machine language program to be
execute. This would waste core by leaving the assembler in memory while the user’s
program was being executed. Also the programmer would have to retranslate his program
with each execution, thus wasting translation time. To over come this problems of wasted
translation time and memory. System programmers developed another component called
loader

“A loader is a program that places programs into memory and prepares them for
execution.” It would be more efficient if subroutines could be translated into object form the
loader could”relocate” directly behind the user’s program. The task of adjusting programs o
they may be placed in arbitrary core locations is called relocation. Relocation loaders
perform four functions.

TRANSLATOR

A translator is a program that takes as input a program written in one language and
produces as output a program in another language. Beside program translation, the translator
performs another very important role, the error-detection. Any violation of d HLL
specification would be detected and reported to the programmers. Important role of translator
are:

1 Translating the all program input into an equivalent ml program.

2 Providing diagnostic messages wherever the programmer violates specification of
the hll.

TYPE OF TRANSLATORS:-

INTERPRETOR
COMPILER
PREPROSSESSOR
LIST OF COMPILERS

1. Ada compilers
2 .ALGOL compilers
3 .BASIC compilers
4 .C# compilers
5 .C compilers
6 .C++ compilers
7 .COBOL compilers
8 .D compilers
9 .Common Lisp compilers
10. ECMAScript interpreters
11. Eiffel compilers
12. Felix compilers
13. Fortran compilers
14. Haskell compilers
15 .Java compilers
16. Pascal compilers
17. PL/I compilers
18. Python compilers
19. Scheme compilers
20. Smalltalk compilers
21. CIL compilers

STRUCTURE OF THE COMPILER DESIGN

Phases of a compiler: A compiler operates in phases. A phase is a logically interrelated

operation that takes source program in one representation and produces output in another
representation. The phases of a compiler are shown in below
There are two phases of compilation.
a. Analysis (Machine Independent/Language Dependent)
b. Synthesis(Machine Dependent/Language independent)
Compilation process is partitioned into no-of-sub processes called ‘phases’.
Lexical Analysis:-
LA or Scanners reads the source program one character at a time, carving the
source program into a sequence of automic units called tokens.
Syntax Analysis:-
The second stage of translation is called Syntax analysis or parsing. In this
phase expressions, statements, declarations etc… are identified by using the results of lexical
analysis. Syntax analysis is aided by using techniques based on formal grammar of the
programming language.
Intermediate Code Generations:-
An intermediate representation of the final machine language code is produced.
This phase bridges the analysis and synthesis phases of translation.
Code Optimization :-
This is optional phase described to improve the intermediate code so that the
output runs faster and takes less space.
Code Generation:-
The last phase of translation is code generation. A number of optimizations to
reduce the length of machine language program are carried out during this phase. The
output of the code generator is the machine language program of the specified computer.
Table Management (or) Book-keeping:-
 This is the portion to keep the names used by the program and records
essential information about each. The data structure used to record this information called a
‘Symbol Table’.
Error Handlers:-
It is invoked when a flaw error in the source program is detected.

The output of LA is a stream of tokens, which is passed to the next phase, the
syntax analyzer or parser. The SA groups the tokens together into syntactic structure called
as expression. Expression may further be combined to form statements. The syntactic
structure can be regarded as a tree whose leaves are the token called as parse trees.

The parser has two functions. It checks if the tokens from lexical analyzer,
occur in pattern that are permitted by the specification for the source language. It also
imposes on tokens a tree-like structure that is used by the sub-sequent phases of the compiler.

Example, if a program contains the expression A+/B after lexical analysis this
expression might appear to the syntax analyzer as the token sequence id+/id. On seeing the /,
the syntax analyzer should detect an error situation, because the presence of these two
adjacent binary operators violates the formulations rule of an expression.

Syntax analysis is to make explicit the hierarchical structure of the incoming

token stream by identifying which parts of the token stream should be grouped.

Example, (A/B*C has two possible interpretations.)

1, divide A by B and then multiply by C or
2, multiply B by C and then use the result to divide A.

each of these two interpretations can be represented in terms of a parse tree.

Intermediate Code Generation:-
The intermediate code generation uses the structure produced by the syntax
analyzer to create a stream of simple instructions. Many styles of intermediate code are
possible. One common style uses instruction with one operator and a small number of
operands.
The output of the syntax analyzer is some representation of a parse tree. the
intermediate code generation phase transforms this parse tree into an intermediate language
representation of the source program.

Code Optimization
This is optional phase described to improve the intermediate code so that the
output runs faster and takes less space. Its output is another intermediate code program that
does the some job as the original, but in a way that saves time and / or spaces.
1, Local Optimization:-
There are local transformations that can be applied to a program to
make an improvement. For example,
If A > B goto L2
 Goto L3
L2 :
This can be replaced by a single statement
If A < B goto L3
Another important local optimization is the elimination of common
sub-expressions
A := B + C + D
E := B + C + F

Might be evaluated as
T1 := B + C

A := T1 + D
E := T1 + F
Take this advantage of the common sub-expressions B + C.

2, Loop Optimization:-
Another important source of optimization concerns about increasing
the speed of loops. A typical loop improvement is to move a
computation that produces the same result each time around the loop
to a point, in the program just before the loop is entered.
Code generator :-
Cg produces the object code by deciding on the memory locations for data,
selecting code to access each datum and selecting the registers in which each computation is
to be done. Many computers have only a few high speed registers in which computations can
be performed quickly. A good code generator would attempt to utilize registers as efficiently
as possible.
Table Management OR Book-keeping :-
A compiler needs to collect information about all the data objects that appear
in the source program. The information about data objects is collected by the early phases of
the compiler-lexical and syntactic analyzers. The data structure used to record this
information is called as Symbol Table.

Error Handing :-
One of the most important functions of a compiler is the detection and
reporting of errors in the source program. The error message should allow the programmer to
determine exactly where the errors have occurred. Errors may occur in all or the phases of a
compiler.
Whenever a phase of the compiler discovers an error, it must report the error to
the error handler, which issues an appropriate diagnostic msg. Both of the table-management
and error-Handling routines interact with all phases of the compiler.
Example:
Position:= initial + rate *60

Lexical Analyzer

Tokens id1 = id2 + id3 * id4

Syntsx Analyzer

id1 +

id2 *

id3 id4

Semantic Analyzer

id1 +

id2 *

id3 60

int to real

Intermediate Code Generator

temp1:= int to real (60)

temp2:= id3 * temp1
temp3:= id2 + temp2
id1:= temp3.

Code Optimizer

Temp1:= id3 * 60.0

 Id1:= id2 +temp1

Code Generator

MOVF id3, r2
MULF *60.0, r2
MOVF id2, r2
ADDF r2, r1
MOVF r1, id1

TOKEN
LA reads the source program one character at a time, carving the source program into
a sequence of automatic units called ‘Tokens’.
1, Type of the token.
2, Value of the token.
Type : variable, operator, keyword, constant
Value : N1ame of variable, current variable (or) pointer to symbol table.
If the symbols given in the standard format the LA accepts and produces
token as output. Each token is a sub-string of the program that is to be treated as a single
unit. Token are two types.
1, Specific strings such as IF (or) semicolon.
2, Classes of string such as identifiers, label, constants.
 OVER VIEW OF LEXICAL ANALYSIS
o To identify the tokens we need some method of describing the possible tokens
that can appear in the input stream. For this purpose we introduce regular expression, a
notation that can be used to describe essentially all the tokens of programming
language.
o Secondly , having decided what the tokens are, we need some mechanism to
recognize these in the input stream. This is done by the token recognizers, which are
designed using transition diagrams and finite automata.

ROLE OF LEXICAL ANALYZER

the LA is the first phase of a compiler. It main task is to read the input character
and produce as output a sequence of tokens that the parser uses for syntax analysis.

Upon receiving a ‘get next token’ command form the parser, the lexical analyzer
reads the input character until it can identify the next token. The LA return to the parser
representation for the token it has found. The representation will be an integer code, if the
token is a simple construct such as parenthesis, comma or colon.

LA may also perform certain secondary tasks as the user interface. One such task is
striping out from the source program the commands and white spaces in the form of blank,
tab and new line characters. Another is correlating error message from the compiler with the
source program.
 LEXICAL ANALYSIS VS PARSING:

Lexical analysis Parsing

A Scanner simply turns an input String (say a A parser converts this list of tokens into a
file) into a list of tokens. These tokens Tree-like object to represent how the tokens
represent things like identifiers, parentheses, fit together to form a cohesive whole
operators etc. (sometimes referred to as a sentence).

The lexical analyzer (the "lexer") parses A parser does not give the nodes any
individual symbols from the source code file meaning beyond structural cohesion. The
into tokens. From there, the "parser" proper next thing to do is extract meaning from this
turns those whole tokens into sentences of structure (sometimes called contextual
your grammar analysis).

TOKEN, LEXEME, PATTERN:

Token: Token is a sequence of characters that can be treated as a single logical entity.
Typical tokens are,
1) Identifiers 2) keywords 3) operators 4) special symbols 5)constants
Pattern: A set of strings in the input for which the same token is produced as output. This set
of strings is described by a rule called a pattern associated with the token.
Lexeme: A lexeme is a sequence of characters in the source program that is matched by the
pattern for a token.
Example:
Description of token

Token lexeme pattern

const const const

if if If

relation <,<=,= ,< >,>=,> < or <= or = or < > or >= or letter
followed by letters & digit
i pi any numeric constant

nun 3.14 any character b/w “and “except"

literal "core" pattern

 A patter is a rule describing the set of lexemes that can represent a particular token in source
program.

LEXICAL ERRORS:

Lexical errors are the errors thrown by your lexer when unable to continue. Which means
that there's no way to recognise a lexeme as a valid token for you lexer. Syntax errors, on the
other side, will be thrown by your scanner when a given set of already recognised valid
tokens don't match any of the right sides of your grammar rules. simple panic-mode error
handling system requires that we return to a high-level parsing function when a parsing or
lexical error is detected.

Error-recovery actions are:

i. Delete one character from the remaining input.
ii. Insert a missing character in to the remaining input.
iii. Replace a character by another character.
iv. Transpose two adjacent characters.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMPILER AND INTERPRETER

A compiler converts the high level instruction into machine language while an
interpreter converts the high level instruction into an intermediate form.
Before execution, entire program is executed by the compiler whereas after
translating the first line, an interpreter then executes it and so on.
List of errors is created by the compiler after the compilation process while an
interpreter stops translating after the first error.
An independent executable file is created by the compiler whereas interpreter is
required by an interpreted program each time.
The compiler produce object code whereas interpreter does not produce object code.
In the process of compilation the program is analyzed only once and then the code is
generated whereas source program is interpreted every time it is to be executed and
every time the source program is analyzed. hence interpreter is less efficient than
compiler.
Examples of interpreter: A UPS Debugger is basically a graphical source level
debugger but it contains built in C interpreter which can handle multiple source files.
example of compiler: Borland c compiler or Turbo C compiler compiles the programs
written in C or C++.
 REGULAR EXPRESSIONS

Regular expression is a formula that describes a possible set of string.

Component of regular expression..
X the character x
. any character, usually accept a new line
[x y z] any of the characters x, y, z, …..
R? a R or nothing (=optionally as R)
R* zero or more occurrences…..
R+ one or more occurrences ……
R1R2 an R1 followed by an R2
R2R1 either an R1 or an R2.
A token is either a single string or one of a collection of strings of a certain type. If we view
the set of strings in each token class as an language, we can use the regular-expression
notation to describe tokens.

Consider an identifier, which is defined to be a letter followed by zero or more letters

or digits. In regular expression notation we would write.

Identifier = letter (letter | digit)*

Here are the rules that define the regular expression over alphabet .

o is a regular expression denoting { € }, that is, the language containing only the
empty string.
o For each ‘a’ in ∑, is a regular expression denoting { a }, the language with only
one string consisting of the single symbol ‘a’ .
o If R and S are regular expressions, then

(R) | (S) means LrULs

R.S means Lr.Ls
R* denotes Lr*

REGULAR DEFINITIONS

For notational convenience, we may wish to give names to regular expressions and
to define regular expressions using these names as if they were symbols.
Identifiers are the set or string of letters and digits beginning with a letter. The
following regular definition provides a precise specification for this class of string.
Example-1,
Ab*|cd? Is equivalent to (a(b*)) | (c(d?))
Pascal identifier
Letter - A | B | ……| Z | a | b |……| z|
Digits - 0 | 1 | 2 | …. | 9
Id - letter (letter / digit)*
Recognition of tokens:
We learn how to express pattern using regular expressions. Now, we must study how to take
the patterns for all the needed tokens and build a piece of code that examins the input string
and finds a prefix that is a lexeme matching one of the
patterns.

Stmt if expr then stmt

| If expr then else stmt
|є
Expr term relop term
| term
Term id
|number
For relop ,we use the comparison operations of languages like Pascal or SQL where = is
“equals” and < > is “not equals” because it presents an interesting structure of lexemes.
The terminal of grammar, which are if, then , else, relop ,id and numbers are the names of
tokens as far as the lexical analyzer is concerned, the patterns for the tokens are described
using regular definitions.

digit -->[0,9]
digits -->digit+
number -->digit(.digit)?(e.[+-]?digits)?
letter -->[A-Z,a-z]
id -->letter(letter/digit)*
if --> if
then -->then
else -->else
relop --></>/<=/>=/==/< >

In addition, we assign the lexical analyzer the job stripping out white space, by recognizing
the “token” we defined by:
ws (blank/tab/newline)+
Here, blank, tab and newline are abstract symbols that we use to express the ASCII
characters of the same names. Token ws is different from the other tokens in that ,when we
recognize it, we do not return it to parser ,but rather restart the lexical analysis from the
character that follows the white space . It is the following token that gets returned to the
parser.
Lexeme Token Name Attribute Value
Any ws _ _
if if _
then then _
else else _
Any id id pointer to table entry
Any number number pointer to table
entry
< relop LT
 <= relop LE
= relop ET
<> relop NE

TRANSITION DIAGRAM:
Transition Diagram has a collection of nodes or circles, called states. Each state
represents a condition that could occur during the process of scanning the input looking for a
lexeme that matches one of several patterns .
Edges are directed from one state of the transition diagram to another. each edge is labeled
by a symbol or set of symbols.
If we are in one state s, and the next input symbol is a, we look for an edge out of state s
labeled by a. if we find such an edge ,we advance the forward pointer and enter the
state of the transition diagram to which that edge leads.
Some important conventions about transition diagrams are
1. Certain states are said to be accepting or final .These states indicates that a lexeme has
been found, although the actual lexeme may not consist of all positions b/w the lexeme
Begin and forward pointers we always indicate an accepting state by a double circle.
2. In addition, if it is necessary to return the forward pointer one position, then we shall
additionally place a * near that accepting state.
3. One state is designed the state ,or initial state ., it is indicated by an edge labeled “start”
entering from nowhere .the transition diagram always begins in the state before any input
symbols have been used.

As an intermediate step in the construction of a LA, we first produce a stylized

flowchart, called a transition diagram. Position in a transition diagram, are drawn as circles
and are called as states.
 The above TD for an identifier, defined to be a letter followed by any no of letters
or digits.A sequence of transition diagram can be converted into program to look for the
tokens specified by the diagrams. Each state gets a segment of code.

If = if
Then = then
Else = else
Relop = < | <= | = | > | >=
Id = letter (letter | digit) *|
Num = digit |
AUTOMATA

An automation is defined as a system where information is transmitted and used for

performing some functions without direct participation of man.
1, an automation in which the output depends only on the input is called an
automation without memory.
2, an automation in which the output depends on the input and state also is called as
automation with memory.
3, an automation in which the output depends only on the state of the machine is
called a Moore machine.
3, an automation in which the output depends on the state and input at any instant of
time is called a mealy machine.

DESCRIPTION OF AUTOMATA

1, an automata has a mechanism to read input from input tape,

2, any language is recognized by some automation, Hence these automation are
basically language ‘acceptors’ or ‘language recognizers’.
Types of Finite Automata

Deterministic Automata
Non-Deterministic Automata.

DETERMINISTIC AUTOMATA

A deterministic finite automata has at most one transition from each state on any
input. A DFA is a special case of a NFA in which:-

1, it has no transitions on input € ,

 2, each input symbol has at most one transition from any state.

DFA formally defined by 5 tuple notation M = (Q, ∑, δ, qo, F), where

Q is a finite ‘set of states’, which is non empty.
∑ is ‘input alphabets’, indicates input set.
qo is an ‘initial state’ and qo is in Q ie, qo, ∑, Q
F is a set of ‘Final states’,
δ is a ‘transmission function’ or mapping function, using this function the
next state can be determined.

The regular expression is converted into minimized DFA by the following procedure:

Regular expression → NFA → DFA → Minimized DFA

The Finite Automata is called DFA if there is only one path for a specific input from
current state to next state.

a
a
So S2

S1

From state S0 for input ‘a’ there is only one path going to S2. similarly from S0 there
is only one path for input going to S1.

NONDETERMINISTIC AUTOMATA

A NFA is a mathematical model that consists of

 A set of states S.
 A set of input symbols ∑.
 A transition for move from one state to an other.
 A state so that is distinguished as the start (or initial) state.
 A set of states F distinguished as accepting (or final) state.
 A number of transition to a single symbol.
 A NFA can be diagrammatically represented by a labeled directed graph, called a
transition graph, In which the nodes are the states and the labeled edges represent
the transition function.

This graph looks like a transition diagram, but the same character can label two or
more transitions out of one state and edges can be labeled by the special symbol €
as well as by input symbols.

The transition graph for an NFA that recognizes the language ( a | b ) * abb is
shown

DEFINITION OF CFG

It involves four quantities.

CFG contain terminals, N-T, start symbol and production.
Terminal are basic symbols form which string are formed.
N-terminals are synthetic variables that denote sets of strings
In a Grammar, one N-T are distinguished as the start symbol, and the set of
string it denotes is the language defined by the grammar.
The production of the grammar specify the manor in which the terminal and
N-T can be combined to form strings.
Each production consists of a N-T, followed by an arrow, followed by a string
of one terminal and terminals.

DEFINITION OF SYMBOL TABLE

An extensible array of records.

The identifier and the associated records contains collected information about
the identifier.
FUNCTION identify (Identifier name)
RETURNING a pointer to identifier information contains
The actual string
A macro definition
A keyword definition
A list of type, variable & function definition
A list of structure and union name definition
A list of structure and union field selected definitions.
 Creating a lexical analyzer with Lex

Lex specifications:

A Lex program (the .l file ) consists of three parts:

declarations
%%
translation rules
%%
auxiliary procedures

1. The declarations section includes declarations of variables,manifest constants(A manifest

constant is an identifier that is declared to represent a constant e.g. # define PIE 3.14),
and regular definitions.
2. The translation rules of a Lex program are statements of the form :
p1 {action 1}
p2 {action 2}
p3 {action 3}
… …
… …
where each p is a regular expression and each action is a program fragment describing
what action the lexical analyzer should take when a pattern p matches a lexeme. In Lex
the actions are written in C.

3. The third section holds whatever auxiliary procedures are needed by the
actions.Alternatively these procedures can be compiled separately and loaded with the
lexical analyzer.
Note: You can refer to a sample lex program given in page no. 109 of chapter 3 of the
book:
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Aho, Sethi & Ullman for more clarity.

INPUT BUFFERING
The LA scans the characters of the source pgm one at a time to discover
tokens. Because of large amount of time can be consumed scanning characters,
specialized buffering techniques have been developed to reduce the amount of
overhead required to process an input character.
Buffering techniques:
1. Buffer pairs
2. Sentinels

The lexical analyzer scans the characters of the source program one a t a time to
discover tokens. Often, however, many characters beyond the next token many
have to be examined before the next token itself can be determined. For this and
other reasons, it is desirable for the lexical analyzer to read its input from an input
buffer. Figure shows a buffer divided into two haves of, say 100 characters each.
One pointer marks the beginning of the token being discovered. A look ahead
pointer scans ahead of the beginning point, until the token is discovered. we view
the position of each pointer as being between the character last read and the
character next to be read. In practice each buffering scheme adopts one
convention either appointer is at the symbol last read or the symbol it is ready to
read.

Token beginnings look ahead pointer The distance which the lookahead
pointer may have to travel past the actual token may be large. For example, in a
PL/I program we may see: DECALRE (ARG1, ARG2… ARG n) Without
knowing whether DECLARE is a keyword or an array name until we see the
character that follows the right parenthesis. In either case, the token itself ends at
the second E. If the look ahead pointer travels beyond the buffer half in which it
began, the other half must be loaded with the next characters from the source file.
Since the buffer shown in above figure is of limited size there is an implied
constraint on how much look ahead can be used before the next token is
discovered. In the above example, if the look ahead traveled to the left half and
all the way through the left half to the middle, we could not reload the right half,
because we would lose characters that had not yet been grouped into tokens.
While we can make the buffer larger if we chose or use another buffering
scheme, we cannot ignore the fact that overhead is limited.