12.1
A Compiler as a Software Project

12.2
Features, Techniques and Tradeoffs

12.3
Run-Time Storage Management

12.4
Incremental Compiling

12.5
Compiler Example: Borland Turbo Compilers

12.6
Compiler Example: Ada Compilers

12.7
Summary

Web References

Exercises

E-Mail

Production Quality Compilers

12.0 Introduction

Production-quality is a term used by compiler designers which has many definitions, depending on the environment for which a compiler is intended.

Many compiler designers would say that a compiler is a production-quality if it implements all the features in the language, puts out good code and has good error diagnostics and recovery (Kukol, 1990). The cost here is in compiler performance, so this is not a good definition in terms of compiler performance. We will discuss features and techniques separately, pointing out their assets and liabilities. This will be especially important if "production-quality" means small and fast, and we will mention separately such features and techniques.