Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!ADLER1%BRANDEIS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.EDU
From: ADLER1%BRANDEIS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Register Transfer Language
Message-ID: <8878@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 20-Aug-87 00:09:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.8878
Posted: Thu Aug 20 00:09:48 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Aug-87 06:35:00 EDT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 31

This is my second try at posting the following question.


I have been reading the info file "internals" (made from the file
internals.texinfo which accompanies the GNU C Compiler) in the hope that it
will make it easier for me to make sense out of the code. In it,
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 implements it on a given machine by providing a file containing a
machine description to pin down specifics. The description of the
features of RTL in the info file 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@BRABRAB sl sl ks