Translator Internals

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I just checked in to SVN a rough text file (euphoria\source\translator.doc)
that describes some of the internals of the Euphoria to C Translator. 
In particular, it lists many of the optimizations that are performed.
It's more than the average user needs, and less than a maintainer
would need, but it's a start. Here it is ...


	The Euphoria Translator: Internal Structure and Optimizations
	
	by Rob Craig, 
	Rapid Deployment Software
	January 2007
	

 * Introduction
 
   The Euphoria to C Translator is a program written entirely in Euphoria.
   The job of the Translator is to convert any Euphoria program into a set 
   of C source files. These C source files can then be compiled by a 
   C compiler to produce an executable file. Several different C/C++ 
   compilers are supported, and executable programs (as well as shared 
   libraries) can be created for Windows, DOS, Linux and FreeBSD.
   
   The main advantage that the Translator has over the Interpreter is 
   execution speed of the user's Euphoria program. Many decisions that
   the Interpreter would make at run-time are made by the Translator at
   translation time. The Translator is thus able to produce streamlined
   C code, which is then further optimized by a C compiler to produce
   efficient machine code. This machine code can often outperform the 
   Interpreter on a given Euphoria program by a factor of about 2 to 
   5 times.
  
 
 * Front-end / Back-end Structure
 
   The Translator uses the common Euphoria front-end. In a few places 
   it was convenient to add some Translator-specific code, or slightly 
   modify the actions of the front-end.
    
   The meat of the Translator is in the alternate back-end that it provides
   for processing the intermediate language (IL) and symbol table information
   created by the front end. Whereas the Interpreter back-end immediately 
   executes each IL opcode as it reads it, the Translator instead outputs 
   C code for performing that IL opcode. The Binder also uses the common
   front-end, with its back-end simply attaching the IL plus symbol table 
   to a copy of the interpreter executable file. There is also a
   Euphoria back-end written in pure Euphoria (execute.e), that uses the
   same common front-end.
   
 
 * Ground Rules
 
   The Translator must always translate a correct Euphoria program into
   a correct C program. The Translator can assume that a program does
   not have run-time errors (and in the interests of speed, it rarely checks 
   for run-time errors). This allows it to deduce additional information.
   For example, if it sees:
   
       integer x
       
       ...
       
       y[x] = 0
       
   it can assume that x will not cause a subscript error, and must therefore
   be a reasonable-sized integer value at this point in the code.
   
   As another example, if it sees:
   
   
       integer x
       
       x = y
       
   it can assume that y has an integer value at this point in the code.    
      
 
 * Converting Euphoria IL Operations to C Code
 
   When the Translator was first developed, it was a straightforward matter
   to study the C code in the Interpreter for a given IL opcode, and 
   output essentially the same C code. 
   
   At the very least, this eliminated the indirect jump from one opcode 
   to the next that takes place in the interpreter, so already the 
   Translated code was faster. The last C statement executed for one opcode 
   was followed immediately by the first C statement for the next opcode. 
   
   Futhermore, one level of indirection in accessing the operands of an 
   operator could usually be removed, since the operand values are picked up 
   indirectly via pointers by the Interpreter, whereas the Translated code 
   could refer directly to the operands as C variables. 
   
   IL operations in the Interpreter must dynamically test the data types of
   each operand and select the appropriate code to execute. The Translator
   often has a good idea at translation time of what the possible data types
   are, and can eliminate run-time tests. In some cases it may also know the
   actual value of one or more operands, and can produce some very lean and 
   efficient code in those cases.
   
   Once this much was working, many additional Translation-time optimizations 
   were devised to make the translated code even smaller and faster.

 
 * Run-time routines
 
   Translated code calls most of the same routines that the Interpreter 
   back-end calls during execution. Translated code accesses these routines 
   via a C library that is linked with each translated program. Sharing 
   these routines saves maintenance effort and promotes compatibility 
   between the Interpreter and the Translator.
 
   The Translator understands the possible data types returned by each
   run-time routine, and uses that information to help stream-line the code.
 
 
 * Information Maintained at Translation time for variables and temps
 
   - Type Information
      
      The Translator tags each variable and temp at translation time with
      its current best estimate of the type that that data will have at
      run-time.
      
   - Other Information
  
      To further improve the quality of the emitted C code, the Translator
      also tracks other information.
      
        range of possible integer values: min ... max
      
        sequence length (if length is constant)
      
 
 * Local vs Global Information
   
   As it calculates the best C code to emit for each Euphoria statement,
   the Translator tracks the range of possible values of each variable
   or temp used in the current statement, as well as the range of possible
   values across the entire Euphoria program. For instance, a global 
   variable x might be known to be an integer at the current statement 
   in the current routine, but not known to always be an integer across 
   the whole program. Or perhaps we know the actual value of x, say 99, 
   at the current point, but across the whole program we can only be 
   sure that x is an integer.
   
 
 * Basic Blocks
   
   Local information is computed for each *basic block*. A basic block
   is a stright-line series of Euphoria statements, with no branches
   in or out. At a branch in, or out, we usually have to discard much of 
   our information. Euphoria does not have a GOTO statement for branching, 
   but branches are created by if-statements, while-statements, 
   for-statements, exits etc, as well as subroutine calls, etc.
     
   When there is no local information available for a variable, the
   Translator falls back to using any available global information.
   In general, it at least knows the type that was used in declaring
   the variable, but it tries to do better than that where possible.
     
 
 * Type information
   
   For each piece of data in a program, the Translator keeps track
   of the current, worst-case type that the data might have at run-time. 
   The possible types are:
        
        TYPE_NULL - no idea, haven't seen any relevant information yet
        
        TYPE_INTEGER - the data is in Euphoria 31-bit integer format
        
        TYPE_DOUBLE - the data is an atom in floating-point format
        
        TYPE_ATOM - the data is an atom, either in 31-bit integer format
                    or floating-point format 
        
        TYPE_SEQUENCE - the data is definitely a Euphoria sequence
        
        TYPE_OBJECT - the data could be anything
   
   During a pass through the IL, the global type information will tend to 
   become more pessimistic, for example, if during the first pass, if the 
   Translator sees something like:
     
        x = 1
        
   it will mark x as being TYPE_INTEGER locally, and later in the source code, 
   when it sees:

        x = 9.9
        
   it will mark x as being TYPE_DOUBLE locally, but by the end
   of the pass it will mark x as being TYPE_ATOM globally.
     
   The function or_type(a, b) will take any two types and merge them
   to return the most precise type that includes both of those types.
   
 
 * Deletion of unreachable routines and statements
   
   Deleting code that can never be executed is useful in two ways. 
   It saves some memory by reducing the amount of C code emitted.
   It may also improve the Translator's knowledge about a variable.
   For example, when translating for Windows, if we have:
        
        atom x
        
        if platform() = LINUX then
            x = 9.9 -- this statement can be deleted (it's never reached)
        else
            x = 5 -- somewhere else in the program
        end if
        
        -- x must be 5
        
   then we can safely assume that x = 9.9 will not be executed
   and x will have the value 5 after this piece of code.
   That might even enable the Translator to mark x as being an 
   integer globally throughout the program, or even as having the 
   value 5 globally.
     
   In some cases, the Translator is not smart enough to delete a chunk
   of code, but by issuing code with constants in it, rather than variables,
   it will allow a good C compiler to see that certain code is unreachable.
     
 
 * Use of Multiple Passes to Improve the Generated Code
   
   During the first pass through a program, (i.e. through the IL for 
   the program), the Translator will not have seen all the assignments 
   to a variable. This may force it to make pessimistic assumptions 
   about the type and possible values that the variable might take on 
   at run-time. After a complete pass, it will have seen all assignments,
   and this could allow it to assume a more restrictive type, 
   or narrower range of values for the variable for subsequent passes.
     
   Now, suppose that somewhere in the source code we have:
     
         y = x
         
   and at the end of one pass the Translator figures out that x can
   only have an integer value, then this information can be used
   in determining the type of y on a second pass through the IL.
   
   And suppose that earlier in the source we have:
     
         z = y 
     
   then on a third pass the Translator will be able to use it's improved
   estimate of y's type to more accurately determine the type of z.
      
   In general, the more passes that the Translators makes through the IL,
   the better it understands the type/value information for the variables
   and the better it can produce C code. Type information can gradually
   propagate and become more refined with each pass.
   
   Currently, in c_decl.e, we have set:
     
      global constant LAST_PASS = 7  -- number of Translator passes
      
   Experiments showed that after, say, 3 or 4 passes the improvement 
   in the emitted C code is typically very small or even non-existent. 
   So we chose 7 passes as a compromise between the possibility of better
   C code versus the boredom of the person waiting for the Translator to
   finish its job. Since it is reading the IL on each pass, and not 
   rescanning or reparsing the source, things go fairly quickly.
     
   
 * Propagation of information into subroutines
     
   The Translator looks at all calls to a routine in an effort to
   determine the most resticted type and possible values for each parameter,
   as used by the current program. For instance, you might declare
   a subroutine parameter as atom, but if the Translator sees that 
   your program always passes an integer, it will take advantage of
   that fact.
     
   Example: If the Translator can see that all calls to a generic 
   library sort routine (that works on any type of data) actually 
   pass a sequence of *integers*, that information will be noted, 
   and the C code generated within the sort function will assume that the
   elements to be sorted are always integers. 
     
   Example: If the Translator sees that your program always passes the
   value 1 (say), as a parameter, it might be able to use that fact to
   eliminate chunks of code inside the subroutine where other (non 1) 
   values are processed.
     
   Thus a very general subroutine might be customized into a faster, 
   smaller version in C that only works for the specific program being 
   translated. This cannot be done when creating shared library 
   (.dll/.so) routines, since those routines will be called from 
   main programs that the Translator has not seen. The C code 
   for those routines must be fully general.
   
 
 * Folding of constant integer expressions
   
   The Translator has some ability to "fold" constant expressions
   at translation time. For instance 8*5 would be calculated as 40,
   and no C multiply operation would be issued. This is particularly useful
   when a variable, such as a subroutine parameter, is determined to 
   always have a known constant value at a particular place in the 
   source program.
   
 
 * Eliminating Refs and DeRefs
   
   Since the Translator and Interpreter share the same run-time
   routines, it is necessary that they both use the same method
   of reclaiming unused memory. This means that the Translator often
   outputs C macros Ref() to increment the reference count, and DeRef() 
   to decrement the reference count on atoms and sequences. 
     
   If the Translator is certain that some data is always going to be a 
   Euphoria integer, it can leave out the Ref() or DeRef().
     
   If the Translator is certain that some data will always be an atom
   in C double format, or a sequence, it can output RefDS() or DeRefDS()
   which are simpler, since they skip the test for integer.
     
   If the Translator is certain that all elements of a sequence will be
   integers, it will output DeRefDSi(). This macro avoids checking the
   elements of a sequence for non-integers, which would in turn have 
   to be DeRef'd. This macro can therefore save a great deal of time
   reclaiming storage for sequences of integers (the most common type
   of sequence in most programs).
      
     
 * Limitations to optimization
 
   The Translator is never allowed to "cheat". A correct Euphoria program
   must be translated into a completely correct C program that will work
   in all cases. e.g.
     
     integer y, z
     atom x
     sequence s
     
     x = y + z -- can we assume that x will be assigned an integer value here? 
               -- No! Integer overflow could occur and we must be prepared
               -- for it!
     
     x = y + 1 -- Not here either!
     
     y = length(s)
     x = y + 1 -- OK, sequence lengths are assumed to not get too close to 
               -- the maximum integer value (1.07 billion, or 4Gb of storage), 
               -- so we assume that x will be assigned an integer
     
 
 * Generating the emake batch file
 
   A slightly different version of emake.bat is generated for each of the
   supported C compilers. emake.bat (emake on Linux/FreeBSD) contains 
   commands for compiling each of the generated C source files, as well
   as a command for linking all the object files with the Translator
   library. In some cases, environment variables are tested to see which
   C compiler is going to be used. A lot of this is in the front-end
   file c_decl.e
   
 
 * Multitasking
 
   The method used by the Translator to support Euphoria's cooperative
   multitasking is quite different from that used by the Interpreter.
   
   The Interpreter is able to maintain its own set of call stacks for
   the various active tasks. These stacks are just allocated blocks of 
   memory, and are under the full control of the Interpeter. When task_yield()
   is called, the Interpreter can easily point to a new call stack for
   the new task about to get control. These stacks are software-controlled
   stacks, they are not the hardware stack.
   
   Translated code is compiled by a C compiler and uses the hardware 
   stack that is manipulated by CPU instructions such as PUSH and POP. When
   a compiled C subroutine is entered, the CPU automatically pushes information
   onto the hardware stack, and the CPU stack register (ESP) is adjusted
   accordingly. When Euphoria's task_yield() is called, the Euphoria scheduler 
   must do some tricky low-level machine operations to point ESP to the new 
   stack top for the new task. If this is the start of a brand new task, some 
   stack space must be found and reserved for this task. Direct manipulation 
   of ESP and other registers is not defined in the C language, so the 
   Euphoria scheduler and task_create() both have some machine code inserted 
   into them, primarily for adjusting the hardware stack pointer. As strange
   as it sounds, when task_yield() "returns", it (in general) returns to a
   different place in the compiled C code than where it was called from. It 
   actually "returns" to the place just after a call to task_yield(),
   but from the new task to be run. This is accomplished by pointing the
   hardware stack pointer to a new position prior to executing the hardware 
   RET (return) instruction. Task switching is thus highly efficient, requiring 
   the execution of just a few machine instructions.

 
 * Routine Id's
 
   To support the use of routine id's for indirect calls (call_proc/call_func)
   the Translator needs to have a stripped-down version of the symbol table
   stored in memory at run-time. It only contains information on Euphoria
   routines in the user's program that might possibly be the target of a
   routine id. See init-.c
 
 
 * Literal values
 
   Literal, non-integer values (e.g. 1.0, "HELLO", are initialized in the
   standard Euphoria object format, in init-.c by init_literal(). To save 
   space, duplicate literals in a program will all point to the same literal 
   in memory.
 
 
 * Shared Libraries
 
   The -dll option will cause the Translator to create a Linux/FreeBSD
   shared library (.so file), or a Windows dynamic link library (.dll file).
   
   The library code and the main program share the same heap, but each
   has its own storage cache.
 
 * Some Other Issues
   
   When generating a C source file, the Translator tries not to generate 
   too large a file, in case this causes a problem for the C compiler.
   It also uses DeRef1(), a simpler, slower version of DeRef() when 
   it appears that a C source file is getting to be quite large. 
   See savespace().
     
-----------------------------
     
Regards,
   Rob Craig
   Rapid Deployment Software
   http://www.RapidEuphoria.com

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