DIR - A code representation approach for compilers

DOLPHIN is a framework conceived to support the development of modular compilers. This framework supplies a large set of components, like: front-ends for some programming languages, back-ends for different computational architectures (operational system + processor), and several code analysis and optimization routines. Using these components, the user can build compilers for several programming languages and/or computational architectures, or even retargetable compilers. All these components work over the same code representation, designated by DOLPHIN Internal code Representation (DIR). This paper aims at presenting DIR, that uses a set of instantiated objects from C++ classes to represent the code at the middle-level of the compilation process. The article presents the principles that guide the conception of this code representation, the advantages and disadvantages compared with the alternative solutions; and several examples illustrating the application of DIR