Overview of the Passes

R1
|    uniquify
V
R1'
|    remove-complex-opera*
V
R1''
|    explicate-control
V
C0
|    select instructions
V
x86*
|    assign homes
V
x86*
|    patch instructions
V
x86
|    print x86
V
x86-in-text

Uniquify

This pass gives a unique name to every variable, so that variable shadowing and scope are no longer important.

We recommend using gensym to generate a new name for each variable bound by a let expression.

To update variable occurences to match the new names, use an association list to map the old names to the new names, extending this map in the case for let and doing a lookup in the case for variables.

Examples:

(let ([x 32])
  (let ([y 10])
    (+ x y)))
=>
(let ([x.1 32])
  (let ([y.2 10])
    (+ x.1 y.2)))


(let ([x 32])
  (+ (let ([x 10]) x) x))
=>
(let ([x.1 32])
  (+ (let ([x.2 10]) x.2) x.1))

Remove Complex Operators and Operands

This pass makes sure that the arguments of each operation are atomic expressions, that is, variables or integer constants. The pass accomplishes this goal by inserting temporary variables to replace the non-atomic expressions with variables.

Examples:

(+ (+ 42 10) (- 10))
=>
(let ([tmp.1 (+ 42 10)])
  (let ([tmp.2 (- 10)])
    (+ tmp.1 tmp.2)))


(let ([a 42])
  (let ([b a])
    b))
=>
(let ([a 42])
  (let ([b a])
    b))

and not

(let ([tmp.1 42])
  (let ([a tmp.1])
    (let ([tmp.2 a])
      (let ([b tmp.2])
        b))))

Grammar of the output:

atm ::= var | int
exp ::= atm | (read) | (- atm) | (+ atm atm) 
    | (let ([var exp]) exp)
R1'' ::= exp

Recommended function organization:

rco-atom : exp -> atm * (var * exp) list

rco-exp : exp -> exp

Inside rco-atom and rco-exp, for recursive calls, use rco-atom when you need the result to be an atom and use rco-exp when you don’t care.

Explicate Control

This pass makes the order of evaluation explicit in the syntax. For now, this means flattening let into a sequence of assignment statements.

The target of this pass is the C0 language. Here is the grammar for C0.

atm ::= int | var
exp ::= atm | (read) | (- atm) | (+ atm atm)
stmt ::= var = exp; 
tail ::= return exp; | stmt tail 
C0 ::= (label: tail)^+

Example:

(let ([x (let ([y (- 42)])
           y)])
  (- x))
=>
locals:
  '(x y)
start:
    y = (- 42);
    x = y;
    return (- x);

Aside regarding tail position. Here is the grammar for R1’’ again but splitting the exp non-terminal into two, one for tail position and one for not-tail nt position.

atm ::= var | int
nt ::= atm | (read) | (- atm) | (+ atm atm) 
   | (let ([var nt]) nt)
tail ::= atm | (read) | (- atm) | (+ atm atm) 
     | (let ([var nt]) tail)
R1'' ::= tail

Recommended function organization:

explicate-tail : exp -> tail * var list

explicate-assign : exp -> var -> tail -> tail * var list

The explicate-tail function takes and R1 expression in tail position and returns a C0 tail and a list of variables that use to be let-bound in the expression. This list of variables is then stored in the info field of the Program node.

The explicate-assign function takes 1) an R1 expression that is not in tail position, that is, the right-hand side of a let, 2) the let-bound variable, and 3) the C0 tail for the body of the let. The output of explicate-assign is a C0 tail and a list of variables that were let-bound.

Here’s a trace of these two functions on the above example.

explicate-tail (let ([x (let ([y (- 42)]) y)]) (- x))
  explicate-tail (- x)
    => {return (- x);}, ()
  explicate-assign (let ([y (- 42)]) y) x {return (- x);}
    explicate-assign y x {return (- x);}
      => {x = y; return (- x)}, ()
    explicate-assign (- 42) y {x = y; return (- x);}
      => {y = (- 42); x = y; return (- x);}, ()
    => {y = (- 42); x = y; return (- x);}, (y)
  => {y = (- 42); x = y; return (- x);}, (x y)