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From: ADLER1%BRANDEIS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Register Transfer Language
Message-ID: <8740@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 11-Aug-87 03:48:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.8740
Posted: Tue Aug 11 03:48:01 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Aug-87 05:09:57 EDT
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I have been reading the files internals-1,internals-2,internals-3 and
internals-4 which accompany the GNU C Compiler in the hope that they
will make it easier for me to make sense out of the code. In the file
internals-2 , there is some discussion of RTL  which stands not for
Run Time Library but for Register Transfer Language.

Now let me try to say what I imagine is true before asking my question.
I'm new at this, so maybe the following is complete nonsense:
Apparently, the compiler works by translating (or compiling ?) C code
into the intermediate language RTL (which is contained in the compiler
source code) and then compiles (?) the resulting RTL
code. RTL is close enough to a general purpose machine language that
one achieves portability merely by giving RTL a file containing a
machine description to pin down specifics. The description of the
features of RTL in internals-2 is nice to read, but I can't help feeling
that since RTL is a general language and since it plays such a key role
in the GNU C Compiler, that it might be instructive to invest some time
in studying RTL in its own right.

My question is this: how can one isolate the language RTL from the GNU
C Compiler so that one can write and run programs in it?

Your comments and criticisms are welcome.

Sincerely,

Allan Adler
ADLER1@BRANDEIS.BITNET