Adama Science and Technology University

Unit 2: Overview of Language Processors

System Programming
COURSE CODE:CSEg4303
Version:1.01
 Programming Languages
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What is programming languages?
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Programming languages allow a programmer to give the computer instructions in a
manner that the programmer can understand
●
Assembly Language is a low level language, where the programmer uses a mnemonic
(abbreviation) to communicate an instruction to the computer
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EX: “A” or “add” for addition
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This mnemonic is translated into machine language (binary) by a program called an
assembler
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Assembly language is a one for one mapping to the machine language and has to be
rewritten for each machine (not all machine languages are the same)
●
An Assembler translates assembler code into machine language that a computer may
execute
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High level languages were created to allow programmers to write at a level where one
programming instruction is converted into several machine language instructions and to
avoid having to constantly rewrite the program
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A compiler converts high level language into machine language that a computer may
execute
 Language Processing Activities
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Language Processing activities arise due to the differences between the manner
in which a software designer describes the ideas concerning the behavior of a
software and the manner in which these ideas are implemented in a computer
system.
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The designer expresses the ideas in terms related to the application domain of
the software.
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To implement these ideas, their description has to be interpreted in terms related
to the execution domain.
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These ideas are actually implemented in the execution domain.
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The gap between the application domain and execution domain is called
semantic gap.
 Semantic Gap
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If a semantic gap is to be covered by the programmer, it means that the
designer has to specify his/her ideas directly in the machine language of the
computer.
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It has three bad/worse effects as far as software design is concerned or
consequences:
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Large development time
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Large development effort
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Poor quality and less reliable software
 Specification and Execution Gaps
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The software engineering aimed at the use of PL can be grouped into
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Specification, design and coding steps.
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PL implementation steps
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Software implementation using PL introduces new domain, the PL domain
between application and execution domain.
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The semantic gap is now split into:
1. Specification gap between the application domain and the PL domain.
2. Execution gap between the PL domain and execution domain.
 Specification and Execution Gaps
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Specification Gap
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It is the semantic gap between two specifications of the same task.
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Execution Gap
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It is the gap between the semantics of programs (that perform the same
task) written in different programming languages.
 Specification and Execution Gaps
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The application domain is some specification language of the user:
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data flow diagrams
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Flow-charts
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decision tables and
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decision tree.
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The specification language of PL domain is the programming language itself.
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The specification language of execution domain is the machine language of
the computer system.
 Language Processors
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“A language processor is a software which bridges a specification or
execution gap”.

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The input to the language processor is the source program while the output
of the language processor is the target program.

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The languages in which these programs are written are known as source
language and target language respectively.
 Types of Language Processors
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The language processor has four important versions:
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A language translator bridges an execution gap to the machine
language (or assembly language) of a computer system. E.g.
Assembler, Compiler.
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A detranslator bridges the same execution gap as the language
translator, but in the reverse direction.
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A preprocessor is a language processor which bridges an execution
gap but is not a language translator.
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A language migrator bridges the specification gap between two PLs.
 Language Processing Activities
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It can be divided into two groups:
– Program generation activities
– Program execution activities

Program
generation
Language
Using
processing
compiler
activities
Program
execution
Using
interpreter
1.Program generation activities…
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A program generation activity aims at automatic generation of a program.
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The source language is the specification language of application domain while
the target language is the procedure oriented programming language.
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The program execution activity organizes the execution of the program written
in the programming language on a computer system.
●
The source language here is procedure or problem oriented language.
Error Messages

Program PG Program in target

specification PL

Fig.1: Program generator

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The program generator is a software which accepts the specification of program
to be generated and generates a program in target programming language.
1.Program generation activities…
1.Program generation activities…

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Execution gap is bridged by the compiler or interpreter.
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The program generator bridges the gap between application domain &
Programming language domain.
 2.Program Execution activities
● Two popular models for program execution are translation and interpretation.
Program translation:

● The program translation model bridges the execution gap by translating a program
written in a PL, called the source program (SP), into an equivalent program in the
machine or assembly language of the computer system, called the target program (TP).
● Characteristics of the program translation model are:
– A program must be translated before it can be executed.
– The translated program may be saved in a file.
– The saved program may be executed repeatedly.
 2. Program Execution activities
Program Interpretation:
 The interpreter reads the source program and stores it in its memory.
 During interpretation it takes a source statement, determines its meaning and
performs actions which implement it. This includes computational and input-output
actions.

 The CPU uses a program counter (PC) to note the address of the next
instruction to be executed.
 2. Program Execution activities
Program Interpretation:
 This instruction is subjected to the instruction execution cycle consisting of
the following steps:

1. Fetch the instruction.

2. Decode the instruction to determine the operation to be performed, and also

its operands.

3. Execute the instruction.

 At the end of the cycle, the instruction address in PC is updated and the cycle is
repeated for the next instruction.
 Fundamentals of Language Processing
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Language Processing = Analysis of SP + Synthesis of TP
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Collection of LP components engaged in analysis a source program as the
analysis phase and components engaged in synthesizing a target program
constitute the synthesis phase.

Sp=source prog.
TP=target program
 Analysis Phase
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The analysis phase uses each component of the source language specification to
determine relevant information concerning a statement in the source program.
●
Thus, analysis of a source statement consists of lexical, syntax and semantic
analysis.
1. Lexical rules -the formation of valid lexical units in the source language.
●
Example:percent_profit = (profit * 100) / cost_price;
identifies =, * and / operators,
100 as constant,
and the remaining strings as identifiers.
2. Syntax rules the formation of valid statements in the source language.
●
Example : percent_profit as the left hand side and (profit * 100) / cost_price as the
expression on the right hand side.
3. Semantic rules -associate meaning with valid statements of the language.
example: percent_profit = (profit * 100) / cost_price;
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Semantic analysis :
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assignment of profit X 100 / cost_price to percent_profit
 Synthesis Phase
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The synthesis phase is concerned with the construction of target language
statement(s) which have the same meaning as a source statement.
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It performs two main activities:
– Creation of data structures in the target program (memory
allocation)
– Generation of target code (code generation)
●
We refer to these activities as memory allocation and code generation,
respectively
 Lexical Analysis (Scanning)
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It identifies the lexical units in a source statements. It then classifies the units
into different lexical classes, e.g. id’s, constants, reserved id’s, etc. and enters
them into different tables.
–
Read the source code and divided the source code into token.
–
The token is a group of characters with meaning.
–
The lexical analyzers takes a stream of lexeme as input and the output is
stream of token.
●
It builds a descriptor, called token, for each lexical unit. A token contains two
fields – class code and number in class.
●
class code identifies the class to which a lexical unit belongs. number in class is
the entry number of the lexical unit in the relevant table.
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A token can be included such like: Keyword, Identifier and Operator.
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Non token can be includes: Comment, Pre-processor directive Macro and
Whitespace
 Example
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std; Can you specifies token and a non-
token in this source code?
int maximum(int x, int y) {
// This will compare 2 numbers
if (x > y)
return x;
else {
return y;
}
 Syntax Analysis (Parsing)
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Syntax analysis processes the string of tokens built by lexical analysis to
determine the statement class, e.g. assignment statement, if statement,
etc.
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Done in order to verify the grammatical mistake of source code.
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Take a stream of token as input and generate syntax tree.
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Example: a=b*c
 Semantic analysis
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It verify the meaning of each and every sentence, like tokens and syntax
structure.
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It help interpret symbols, their types, and their relations with each other.
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It just verify weather an operator is operating on required numbers of operand or
not.
Example: int a=”code”;
– Explain: should not issue an error in lexical and syntax analysis phase, as it
is lexically and structurally correct, but it should generate a semantic error
as the type of the assignment differs.
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The following tasks should be performed in semantic analysis:
– Scope resolution
– Type checking
– Array-bound checking
 Semantic Errors
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A some of the semantics errors that the semantic analyzer is expected
to recognize:
– Type mismatch
– Undeclared variable
– Reserved identifier misuse.
– Multiple declaration of variable in a scope.
– Accessing an out of scope variable.
– Actual and formal parameter mismatch.
Symbol Tables Data Structures for Language Processing
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Advance data structure used by compiler to store complete
information of source code at any phase.
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If new variable encountered that should be stored into symbol table.
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Communicate with each and every phase of the compiler.
 Criteria of classification of data structure of LP
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Nature of a data structure
– Linear or
– Non-linear
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Purpose of a data structure
– Search
– Alloctaion
 Linear Data structure
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Constist of linear arrangement of elements in the memory.
– Example:
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Stacks
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Linked list
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Queues
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Advantage:
– Facilities efficient search.
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Disadvantage:
– Require a contagious area of memory.
– Wastage of memory
 Non-Linear Data structure
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Overcome the disadvantage of the linear DS.
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The elements of non-linear DS are access using pointer.
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Elements need not occupy in contigious area of memory
– Example of Linear DS:
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Trees
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Graphs
 Symbol Table
➢ Symbol table is an important data structure used in a compiler.
➢ Symbol table is used to store the information about the occurrence of various
entities such as:
➢
objects, classes, variable name, interface, function name etc.
➢ It is used by both the analysis and synthesis phases.
➢ The symbol table used for following purposes:
● It is used to store the name of all entities in a structured form at one place.
● It is used to verify if a variable has been declared.
● It is used to determine the scope of a name.
● It is used to implement type checking by verifying assignments and
expressions in the source code are semantically correct.
 Symbol Table Organization
1) Sequential Search Organization
●
It is a method for finding a particular value in a list that consists of checking
every one of its elements, one at a time and in sequence, until the desired one
is found.
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Search for symbol: All active entries in of the table have same probability
of being accessed.
●
Add a symbol: The symbol is added to the first free in entry the table.
● Delete a symbol: The symbol is deleted by two way:
– Physical Deletion: It involves permanently removing the data from
symbol table.
– Logical Deletion: involves marking the element as inactive without
physically removing from the symbol table.
 Symbol Table Organization
2)Binary Search Organization
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It is a highly effective method for searching an ordered list.
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All entries in of the table are assumed to satisfy ordering relation.
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< relation implies that the symbol occupying an entry is smaller or larger
than the symbol.
● If the new symbol is smaller then it will be put at left side otherwise put at
right side .
●
Every new symbol existing symbol may have to be shifted to ensure order
relation.
● Hence, this is not good for symbol table.
● It is suitable for table which has fixed set of symbol.
– Ex: Table of reserved word in programming language.
 Allocation of Data Structures
1)Stacks
●
Linear DS which stasfies the following properties:
– Allocation and de-allocation are preformed in a LIFO maner.
– Only last elements is accessible at any time.
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It has limited size.
 Allocation of Data Structures
2)Heaps
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Non-Linear DS and used for dynamic memory.
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Allocation and de-allocation of the entities in random order.
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It has no limited size.
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To access we use pointer so, it is slower.