An Automatically Generated and Provably Correct Compiler for a Subset of Ada

We describe the automatic generation of a provably correct compiler for a non-trivial subset of Ada. The compiler is generated from an action semantic description; it emits absolute code for an abstract RISC machine language that currently is assembled into code for the SPARC and the HP Precision Architecture. The generated code is an order of magnitude better than what is produced by compilers generated by the classical systems of Mosses, Paulson, and Wand. The use of action semantics makes the processable language specification easy to read and pleasant to work with. In Proc. ICCL'92, Fourth IEEE International Conference on Computer Languages, pages 117--126. 1 Introduction The purpose of a language designer's workbench, envisioned by Pleban, is to drastically improve the language design process. The major components in such a workbench are: ffl A specification language whose specifications are easily maintainable, and accessible without knowledge of the underlying theory; and f..