When generating code, what language should you generate?

Question

I've worked on a number of products that make use of code generation. It seems to be the only way to achieve both a high degree of user-customizability and high execution speed.

The downside is that we are requiring users to install a compiler (primarily on MS Windows).

This has been an on-going headache, because vendors like MS keep obsoleting compilers, and some users tend to have more than one compiler installed.

We're considering using GNU C, and possibly C++, but even there, there are continual version issues.

I've considered possibly generating assembly language, in an effort to get off the compiler-version-treadmill, but assembly languages are all machine-specific.

Ideally there would be some way to produce generated code that would be flexible, run fast, and not expose us to the whims of third-party providers.

Maybe I'm overlooking something simple, like Java. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

start here: http://www.codegeneration.net/

Answer 2

I might be missing some context here, but could you just pin yourself to a specific version? E.g., .NET 2.0 can be installed side by side with .NET 1.1 and .NET 3.5, as well as other versions that will come out in the future. So as long as your code makes use of a specific version of a compiler, what's the problem?

Answer 3

One option would be to use a language/environment that provides access to the compiler in code; For example, here is a C# example.

Answer 4

I've considered possibly generating assembly language, in an effort to get off the compiler-version-treadmill, but assembly languages are all machine-specific.

That would be called a compiler :)

Why don't you stick to C90?

I haven't heard much of severe violations of standards from gcc's side, if you don't use extensions.

And you can always distribute a certain version of gcc along with your product, say, 4.3.2, giving an option to users to use their own compiler at their own risk.

As long as all code is generated by you (i. e. you don't embed your instructions into other's code), there shouldn't be any problems in testing against this version and using it to compile your libraries.

Answer 5

If you're considering C and even assembler, take a look at LLVM first: http://llvm.org

Answer 6

Why not ship a GNU C compiler with your code generator? That way you have no version issues, and the client can constantly generate code that is usable.

Answer 7

I would stick to that language that you use for generating that language. You can generate and compile Java code in Java, Python code in Python, C# in C# even LISP in LISP etc.

But it is not clear whether such languages are sufficiently fast for you. For top speed I would choose to generate C++ and use gcc for compilation.

Answer 8

It sounds like you're looking for LLVM.

Answer 9

Why not use something like SpiderMonkey or Rhino (Javascript support in Java or C++). You can export your objects to Javascript namespaces, and your users don't have to compile anything.

Answer 10

If you want to generate asm code, you may take a look at asmjit .

Answer 11

this might be too late. but here is my two cents. embed an interpreter for a language like lua/scheme into your program. and generate code in that language.