XML-based Intermediate Representation ( XIR )

We present a novel approach that enables automatic generation of code for the front end of a the need for a general approach that provides a syntaxtree level API independent of a specific tree implemencompiler. The proposed approach is based on a Tree Manipulation Language (TML). TML is implemented on top of C++ and adds symbolic computational properties to manipulate hierarchical structures. We introduce an XML-based intermediate representation (XIR) used with TML that dramatically improves various front-end compiler algorithms such as symbol table creation and lookup, and abstract syntax tree (AST) generation and traversal. The proposed approach results in multiple benefits, for example, the significant reduction of code required to build ASTs, symbol table, and inheritance hierarchies. We built a C# parser in order to illustrate the effectiveness of our approach.