19 lines
990 B
Text
19 lines
990 B
Text
.sp 2
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.NH
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Testing the compiler
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.nh
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.sp
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.LP
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Although it is practically impossible to prove the correctness of a compiler,
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a systematic method of testing the compiler is used to increase the confidence
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that it will work satisfactorily in practice. The first step was to see if
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the lexical analysis was performed correctly. For this purpose, the routine
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LexScan() was used (see also the \-l option). Next we tested the parser
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generated by LLgen, to see whether correct Pascal programs were accepted and
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garbage was dealed with gracefully. The biggest test involved was the
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validation of the semantic analysis. Simultaneously we tested the code
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generation. First some small Pascal test programs were translated and
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executed. When these programs work correctly, the Pascal validation suite
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and a large set of Pascal test programs were compiled to see whether they
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behaved in the manner the standard specifies. For more details about the
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Pascal validation suite, the reader is referred to [PCV].
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