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Bril: An Intermediate Language for Teaching Compilers

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170 points signa11 | 1 comments | 27 Jul 24 03:50 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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fire_lake ◴[27 Jul 24 09:24 UTC] No.41085430[source]▶
I thought that ANF is considered a dead-end?

Now the main choices seem to be CPS (which is seeing a bit of a resurgence!) and SSA.

So why teach ANF?

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mrkeen ◴[27 Jul 24 17:08 UTC] No.41087918[source]▶
I attempted both when trying to implement a language, and I couldn't wrap my head around the typing of the term that CPS introduces, so I ended up going down the ANF road.
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fire_lake ◴[27 Jul 24 18:15 UTC] No.41088346[source]▶
Appel has a book on compiling with CPS Compiling with Continuations. It’s implemented in SML so the types are front and center. Might be of use!
replies(1): >>41088572 #
1. mrkeen ◴[27 Jul 24 19:03 UTC] No.41088572[source]▶
p225:

> However, having a typed CPS language would require the manipulation and reduction of types whenever B-reductions (and other transformations) are performed. Although this is certainly possible to do, it is painful enough that we have decided to avoided this approach.