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Aspect structure of compilers

Compilers are among the most widely-studied pieces of software; and, modularizing these valuable artifacts is a recurring theme in research. However, modularization of cross-cutting concerns in compilers is not yet well explored. Even today, implementation of one compiler concern scatters across and tangles with the implementation of several other concerns, thereby leading to a mismatch between different compiler modules and the operations they represent. Essentially, current compiler implementations fail to explicitly identify the control dependencies of different phases, and separately characterize the actions to execute during those phases. As a result, information about their program-execution path remains non-intuitive: it stays hidden within the program structure and cuts-across several phase implementations. Consequently, this makes compiler designs and artifacts difficult to comprehend, maintain and reuse. Such limitations occur primarily as a result of the inability of mainstream object-oriented languages, such as Java, to organize the cross-cutting concerns into clean modular units.<p>
This thesis demonstrates how such modularity-issues in compilers can be addressed with the help of a relatively new, yet powerful programming paradigm called aspect-oriented programming.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-08272009-164252
Date16 September 2009
CreatorsPaudel, Jeeva
ContributorsDutchyn, Christopher
PublisherUniversity of Saskatchewan
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-08272009-164252/
Rightsrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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