generic type support

Mon Feb 24 13:16:00 GMT 2003

> Since you're so negative about your current frontend, you may want to
> take a look at the parser and frontend I did for my own static compiler
> for a superset of Java. It is contains a clean yacc parser for
> Java 2 1.4.
>> See <www.pds.twi.tudelft.nl/timber>

What a coincidence - I was looking at a number of front-ends/native
compilers for Java just this morning, including Timber, and now I
see this post from you!
I looked at EDG's JFE/Dinkumware's JProject, Timber, Microsoft's
(now shelved) Marmot, Manta, etc. I found this paper from Marmot
especially nice, though admittedly I couldn't completely understand
it:
 "Marmot: An Optimizing Compiler for Java"
 (http://research.microsoft.com/apl/pubs/marmot.pdf)
 (or http://research.microsoft.com/apl/pubs/marmot.ps)
I wish we had a simpler, say a recursive-descent, parser for our
front-end. The current yacc/bison based parser makes it very
difficult for people like me to even start with the code trying to 
figure out the cause of a problem - were it not for the hand-holding
of people like Tom and Andrew, I would not have dared to submit the
couple of patches to the front-end that I managed to have.
In contrast, the Jikes 1.18 source appears much friendlier, at
least on first glance.
Oh BTW, take these statements with a sack of salt considering that
they have been made by a person who has only built a simple Pascal
compiler as an undergraduate till date. Did someone say something
about empty vessels making the most noise? ;-)
Ranjit.