License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.PARMA-DITAM.2023.2
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-177225
URL: https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2023/17722/
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Bispo, João ; Paulino, Nuno ; Sousa, Luís Miguel

Challenges and Opportunities in C/C++ Source-To-Source Compilation (Invited Paper)

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OASIcs-PARMA-DITAM-2023-2.pdf (0.6 MB)

Abstract

The C/C++ compilation stack (Intermediate Representations (IR), compilation passes and backends) is encumbered by a steep learning curve, which we believe can be lowered by complementing it with approaches such as source-to-source compilation. Source-to-source compilation is a technology that is widely used and quite mature in certain programming environments, such as JavaScript, but that faces a low adoption rate in others. In the particular case of C and C++ some of the identified factors include the high complexity of the languages, increased difficulty in building and maintaining C/C++ parsers, or limitations on using source code as an intermediate representation. Additionally, new technologies such as Multi-Level Intermediate Representation (MLIR) have appeared as potential competitors to source-to-source compilers at this level.
In this paper, we present what we have identified as current challenges of source-to-source compilation of C and C++, as well as what we consider to be opportunities and possible directions forward. We also present several examples, implemented on top of the Clava source-to-source compiler, that use some of these ideas and techniques to raise the abstraction level of compiler research on complex compiled languages such as C or C++. The examples include automatic parallelization of for loops, high-level synthesis optimisation, hardware/software partitioning with run-time decisions, and automatic insertion of inline assembly for fast prototyping of custom instructions.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{bispo_et_al:OASIcs.PARMA-DITAM.2023.2,
  author =	{Bispo, Jo\~{a}o and Paulino, Nuno and Sousa, Lu{\'\i}s Miguel},
  title =	{{Challenges and Opportunities in C/C++ Source-To-Source Compilation}},
  booktitle =	{14th Workshop on Parallel Programming and Run-Time Management Techniques for Many-Core Architectures and 12th Workshop on Design Tools and Architectures for Multicore Embedded Computing Platforms (PARMA-DITAM 2023)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:15},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-269-3},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{107},
  editor =	{Bispo, Jo\~{a}o and Charles, Henri-Pierre and Cherubin, Stefano and Massari, Giuseppe},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2023/17722},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-177225},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.PARMA-DITAM.2023.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Source-to-source, compilation, transpilers, C/C++, code transformation}
}

Keywords: Source-to-source, compilation, transpilers, C/C++, code transformation
Collection: 14th Workshop on Parallel Programming and Run-Time Management Techniques for Many-Core Architectures and 12th Workshop on Design Tools and Architectures for Multicore Embedded Computing Platforms (PARMA-DITAM 2023)
Issue Date: 2023
Date of publication: 13.03.2023

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