''The Design of an Optimizing Compiler'' (

Elsevier Science Ltd Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or theses. The part of a ...

, 1980, ), by

William Wulf William Allan Wulf (born December 8, 1939) is a computer scientist notable for his work in programming languages and compilers. Until June 2012, he was a university professor and the AT&T Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the Depart ...

, Richard K. Johnson, Charles B. Weinstock, Steven O. Hobbs, and Charles M. Geschke, was published in 1975 by Elsevier. It describes the

BLISS BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C b ...

optimizing compiler In computing, an optimizing compiler is a compiler that tries to minimize or maximize some attributes of an executable computer program. Common requirements are to minimize a program's execution time, memory footprint, storage size, and power cons ...

for the

PDP-11 The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, ...

, written at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

in the early 1970s. The compiler ran on a

PDP-10 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...

and was one of the first to produce well-optimized code for a minicomputer. Because of its elegant design and the quality of the generated code, the compiler and book remain classics in the compiler field. Although the original book has been out of print for many years, a print on demand version remains available from

University Microfilms International ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, providi ...

Reception

''Software: Practice and Experience'' said compiling experts would benefit the most with ''The Design of an Optimizing Compiler''.

References

External links

''The Design of an Optimizing Compiler''
- Online version at CMU Computer programming books Compilers 1975 non-fiction books Elsevier books {{Compu-book-stub