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A Symmetric Approach to Compilation and Decompilation

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The Essence of Computation

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2566))

Abstract

Just as an interpreter for a source language can be turned into a compiler from the source language to a target language, we observe that an interpreter for a target language can be turned into a compiler from the target language to a source language. In both cases, the key issue is the choice of whether to perform an evaluation or to emit code that represents this evaluation.

We substantiate this observation with two source interpreters and two target interpreters. We first consider a source language of arithmetic expressions and a target language for a stack machine, and then the λ- calculus and the SECD-machine language. In each case, we prove that the target-to-source compiler is a left inverse of the source-to-target compiler, i.e., that it is a decompiler.

In the context of partial evaluation, the binding-time shift of going from a source interpreter to a compiler is classically referred to as a Futamura projection. By symmetry, it seems logical to refer to the binding-time shift of going from a target interpreter to a compiler as a Futamura embedding.

Basic Research in Computer Science (www.brics.dk), funded by the Danish National Research Foundation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. BRICS Department of Computer Science, Ny Munkegade, Building 540, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Mads Sig Ager & Olivier Danvy

  2. Department of Computer Science, Ben Gurion University, 84105, Be’er Sheva, Israel

    Mayer Goldberg

Authors
  1. Mads Sig Ager
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  2. Olivier Danvy
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  3. Mayer Goldberg
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. DIKU, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 1, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Torben Æ. Mogensen

  2. Department of Computing and Information Sciences, Kansas State University, 234 Nichols Hall, 66506, Manhattan, KS, USA

    David A. Schmidt

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at Dallas, P.O. Box 830688, 75083, Richardson, TX, USA

    I. Hal Sudborough

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Sig Ager, M., Danvy, O., Goldberg, M. (2002). A Symmetric Approach to Compilation and Decompilation. In: Mogensen, T.Æ., Schmidt, D.A., Sudborough, I.H. (eds) The Essence of Computation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2566. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36377-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36377-7_14

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