Rie, a Compiler Generator Based on a One-pass-type Attribute Grammar

We herein describe a compiler generator, Rie, which is based on a one-pass-type attribute grammar. LR-attributed grammars are one class of attribute grammars in which attribute evaluation can be performed in one pass during LR parsing without creating a parse tree. Rie was developed based on a variant of an LR-attributed grammar called ECLR-attributed grammar (equivalence class LR-attributed grammar), in which equivalence relations are introduced into the LR-attributed grammar. Rie generates a one-pass compiler from a compiler description given in attribute grammar form. Many language processors have been developed using Rie. The generated compiler is only about 1·8 times slower than a handwritten compiler, which is fairly efficient for a compiler generated from formal descriptions.