@Blog("Baptiste Wicht")

EDDIC 0.8.1 : do while loop and better optimization

Baptiste Wicht — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:21:50 +0000

Only three days after the 0.8 version, I finished the 0.8.1 version. It’s a minor version, so there is no big changes to the language. However, I added support for the do while loop in the source code. Another change is that assignment is now returning a value. That allows you to make some code like this one:int a = b = 5; b = (a = ...

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Assembly Language Step By Step, Programming with Linux – Book Review

Baptiste Wicht — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:21:57 +0000

To improve my skills in Intel Assembly, I ordered and read Assembly Language Step by Step, Programming with Linux, by Jeff Duntemann. Just for the record, I read it on my Amazon Kindle. This book is really made for very beginners. The author is fan of metaphor to explain some concepts, comparing assembly to a game he explains in several pages… I didn’t liked ...

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EDDIC 0.8 : 64bit generation

Baptiste Wicht — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:44:32 +0000

I just released the version 0.8. The main change of this version is the addition of a 64bit generation. If you compiles eddic in 64bit, the default output of the compiler will be 64 bit, otherwise it will be 32 bit. You can also select the output by setting command line switch (-32 and -64). The biggest change at the side of the language is the ...

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Local optimization of Three-Address-Code

Baptiste Wicht — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:55:40 +0000

Some compilers are using Three-Address-Code (TAC) as an intermediate representation. This representation is very simple to understand and write. Moreover, it’s easy to run some optimization on this representation. Each TAC statement has this general form : result = operand1 operator operand2 For example, here are some TAC statements: a = 1 x = a * 3 if x > a goto test param "dddd" call print test: param "asdf" call print In this post, ...

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EDDIC 0.7.1 : Boolean conditions and new operators

Baptiste Wicht — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:11:09 +0000

I just finished working on the 0.7.1 version of eddic. Even it it’s a minor version, there are several new features in the language itself. First of all, the boolean conditions have been greatly improved. You can now use && (short circuit and operator) and || (short circuit or operator) operators to make complex conditions for if and while structure. Moreover, you can now declare variables ...

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Install the Insight Debugger on Linux Mint (works for Ubuntu too)

Baptiste Wicht — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:28:41 +0000

Insight is a very good debugger based on gdb. I prefer it over ddd or kdbg as I find it clearer and easier to use. Moreover, this debugger is also the one used in the book Assembly language Step by Step, for Linux. However, Insight has been removed from Debian packages already more than a year ago. But, thanks to SevenMachines, a PPA repository ...

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Use Boost enable_if to handle ambiguous function overload return types

Baptiste Wicht — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:51:25 +0000

The title is not really clear but I didn’t found a better one. The example will be clearer (I hope). In EDDI, I had this little function :template<typename Visitor, typename Visitable> void visit(Visitor& visitor, Visitable& visitable){ visitor(visitable); }For the record, this function is only invoking a specific operator of a visitor. The problem was that I wanted this function to handle also non-void ...

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Compilers : Principles, Techniques & Tools – Book Review

Baptiste Wicht — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:27:19 +0000

Some weeks ago, I finished reading Compilers : Principles, Techniques & Tools, by Afred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi and Jeffrey D. Ullman. This book is also called the Dragon Book due to the cover. This book is a reference about compiler construction and design. If you are interested in this subject, this book is for you, it’s a must-have. However, I have to ...

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EDDIC 0.7 : New compilation model and optimizations

Baptiste Wicht — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:28:18 +0000

I’m proud to announce a new release of EDDIC, the version 0.7. Most of the changes are internal to the compiler. I read a new book : Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools and applied some of the advices of the author. The biggest change is the use of a new intermediate representation : Three-Address-Code statements. This representation is easy, all the statements are basically of the ...

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Install Cinnamon in Linux Mint – A forked Gnome Shell

Baptiste Wicht — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:11:19 +0000

In the last Linux Mint version (12), the developers have introduced a set of extensions to the Gnome Shell, Mint Gnome Shell Extensions (MGSE). But, plugins can’t do everything the developers want. So they forked Gnome Shell and started building their own shell : Cinnamon. At the time of writing, the appearance of this new shell is similar to MGSE in Linux Mint 12, but with ...

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