Initial release 1968? | Development status unknown | |
Original author(s) |
The TREE-META (or Tree Meta, TREEMETA) Translator Writing System is a compiler-compiler system for context-free languages originally developed in the 1960s. Parsing statements of the metalanguage resemble augmented Backus–Naur form with embedded tree-building directives. Unparsing rules include extensive tree-scanning and code-generation constructs.
Contents
History
TREE-META was instrumental in the development of the On-Line System and was ported to many systems including the Univac 1108, GE 645, SDS-940, ICL 1906A, PERQ, and UCSD p-System.
Example
This is a complete example of a TREE-META program extracted (and untested) from the more complete (declarations, conditionals, and blocks) example in Appendix 6 of the ICL 1900 TREE-META manual. That document also has a definition of TREE-META in TREE-META in Appendix 3. This program is not just a recognizer, but also outputs the assembly language for the input. It demonstrates one of the key features of TREE-META, which is tree pattern matching. It is used on both the LHS (GET and VAL for example) and the RHS (ADD and SUB).
% This is an ALGOL-style comment delimited by %
% ====================== INPUT PARSE RULES ======================= %.META PROG % A program defining driving rule is required. %% This PROG rule is the driver of the complete program. %PROG = $STMT ;% $ is the zero or more operator. %% PROG (the program) is defined as zero or more STMT (statements). %STMT = .ID ':=' AEXP :STORE[2]*;% Parse an assignment statement from the source to the tree. % % ':=' is a string constant, :STORE creates a STORE node, %% [2] defines this as having two branches i.e. STORE [ID,AEXP]. %% * triggers a bottom-up unparse of what's in the tree, which %% should result in nodes up to and including the STORE being %% emitted as output and removed from the tree. %AEXP = FACTOR $('+' FACTOR :ADD[2] / '-' FACTOR :SUB[2]);% Here we have the recognizer for arithmetic '+' :ADD and '-' :SUB %% tree building. Again the [2] creates a 2-branch ADD or SUB tree. %% Unparsing is deferred until an entire statement has been parsed. %% ADD[FACTOR,FACTOR] or SUB[FACTOR,FACTOR] %FACTOR = '-' PRIME :MINUSS[1] / PRIME ;PRIME = .ID / .NUM / '(' AEXP ')' ?3? ;% ?3? is a hint for error messages. % % ===================== OUTPUT UNPARSE RULES ===================== %STORE[-,-] => GET[*2] 'STORE ' *1 ;% *1 is the left tree branch. *2 is the right %% GET[*2] will generate code to load *2. %% The 'STORE' string will be output %% followed by left branch *1 a symbol %% Whatever *2, it will be loaded by GET[*2]. %GET[.ID] => 'LOAD ' *1 / [.NUM] => ' LOADI ' *1 / [MINUSS[.NUM]] => 'LOADN ' *1:*1 / [-] => *1 ;% Here an .ID or a .NUM will simply be loaded. A MINUSS node %% containing a .NUM will have this used, the notation *1:*1 means %% the first branch (a .NUM) of the first branch (MINUSS). %% Anything else will be passed on for node recognition %% The unparse rules deconstruct a tree outputing code. %ADD[-,-] => SIMP[*2] GET[*1] 'ADD' VAL[*2] / SIMP[*1] GET[*2] 'ADD' VAL[*1] / GET[*1] 'STORE T+' < OUT[A] ; A<-A+1 > / GET[*2] 'ADD T+' < A<-A-1 ; OUT[A] > ;% Chevrons < > indicate an arithmetic operation, for example to %% generate an offset A relative to a base address T. %SUB[-,-] => SIMP[*2] GET[*1] 'SUB' VAL[*2] / SIMP[*1] GET[*2] 'NEGATE' % 'ADD' VAL[*1] / GET[*2] 'STORE T+' < OUT[A] ; A<-A+1 > / GET[*1] 'SUB T+' < A<-A-1 ; OUT[A] > ;% A percent character in an unparse rule indicates a newline. %SIMP[.ID] => .EMPTY / [.NUM] => .EMPTY / [MINUSS[.NUM]] => .EMPTY;VAL[.ID] => ' ' *1 / [.NUM] => 'I ' *1 / [MINUSS[.NUM]] => 'N ' *1:*1 ;MINUSS[-] => GET[*1] 'NEGATE' ;.END