Re: I found a FORTH stack optimzer, but could use a better version.

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 18:25:08 -0500, "Rod Pemberton"
<do_not_have@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>> What you are describing is essentially a rule-based or pattern
>> matching compiler.
>
>Yes, it's the basic method used by most HLL compilers, e.g., C to
generate
>efficient instruction sequences given a set of assembly instructions,
each
>one of which is defined in terms of a set of micro-operations.

That's peep-hole optimisation in my terms, where we can look at
the compiler in terms of three sequences
  front-end source tokenisation (maybe with rules)
  instruction generation
  peephole optimisation (maybe with rules)

Pattern-matchers are good for the first and third of these, but
very limited for the second. VFX focuses on the second case. The
first stage is handled by a very limited set of rules, less than
a dozen for most CPU architectures. For most CPUs, you should
consider the first and second before you look at the third.

>If you're referring to a FORTH to machine or assembly language compiler
(not
>a traditional FORTH environment and not a FORTH meta-compiler), do you
know
>of any where I can look at the output post analysis or post optimization?
>Or, know of any which do FORTH to FORTH translation?

For VFX, define
: foo ... ;
dis foo

For Forth to Forth translation look at Timbre by Rob Chapman. Others
have used it for host and embedded compilation.

Stephen


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