Programming languages for non-numeric processing—1: TMG—a syntax directed compiler

THIS PAPER reports on a compiler writing system called TMG, basically a syntax directed system. It has, however, some interesting differences which make it easier to handle errors and declarative information. The original objective of this system was to make it as easy as possible to construct a simple one-pass translator for some specialized language.

In TMG, emphasis is placed on scanning and analysis of input text and efficient production of straightforward translation of the input. For this reason, there are substantially no facilities for handling program topology, efficient register assignment, common subexpression removal, or complicated storage assignment. It was felt that, if required, these should be handled by a specially written post-processor.

To explain how one writes a translator in TMGL, we will describe in some detail a compiler which translates a simple algebraic language (SAL) into symbolic machine code for the IBM 7040.