Abstract
This paper demonstrates how reduction to normal form can help in the design of a correct compiler for Dijkstra's guarded command language. The compilation strategy is to transform a source program, by a series of algebraic manipulations, into a normal form that describes the behaviour of a stored-program computer. Each transformation eliminates high-level language constructs in favour of lower-level constructs. The correctness of the compiler follows from the correctness of each of the algebraic transformations.
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Hoare, C.A.R., Jifeng, H. & Sampaio, A. Normal form approach to compiler design. Acta Informatica 30, 701–739 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191809
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191809