Tombstone diagram

Representation of the process of bootstrapping a C compiler written in C, by compiling it using another compiler written in machine code. To explain, the lefthand T is a C compiler written in C that produces machine code. The righthand T is a C compiler written in machine code that also produces machine code. The diagram illustrates that this can be used to bootstrap the left T by using it to compile the compiler written in C.

In computing, tombstone diagrams (or T-diagrams) consist of a set of “puzzle pieces” representing compilers and other related language processing programs. They are used to illustrate and reason about transformations from a source language (left of T) to a target language (right of T) realised in an implementation language (bottom of T). They are most commonly found describing complicated processes for bootstrapping, porting, and self-compiling of compilers, interpreters, and macro-processors.^[1]

T-diagrams were first used for describing bootstrapping and cross-compiling compilers by Harvey Bratman in 1961,^[2] who reshaped the diagrams originally introduced by Strong et al. (1958) to illustrate UNCOL. ^[3] Later on, others, including McKeeman et al. ^[4] and P.D. Terry,^[1] explained the usage of T-diagrams with further detail. T-diagrams are also now used to describe client-server interconnectivity on the World Wide Web.^[5] A teaching tool TDiag has been implemented at Leipzig University, Germany.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b Terry, 1997, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3
^ Bratman, Harvey (March 1961). "A alternate form of the "UNCOL diagram"". Communications of the ACM. 4 (3): 142. doi:10.1145/366199.366249. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
^ Strong, J.; Wegstein, J.; Tritter, A.; Olsztyn, J.; Mock, O.; Steel, T. (August 1958). "The Problem of Programming Communication with Changing Machines: A Proposed Solution". Communications of the ACM. 1 (8): 12–18. doi:10.1145/368892.368915. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
^ McKeeman et al., A Compiler Generator (1971)
^ Patrick Closhen, Hans-Juergen Hoffmann, et al. 1997: T-Diagrams as Visual Language to Illustrate WWW Technology, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany
^ Michael Hielscher, et al.: TDiag: Entwicklung und Ausführung eines T-Diagramms, in German

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[Terry-1] Terry, 1997, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3

[2] Bratman, Harvey (March 1961). "A alternate form of the "UNCOL diagram"". Communications of the ACM. 4 (3): 142. doi:10.1145/366199.366249. Retrieved 21 February 2022.

[3] Strong, J.; Wegstein, J.; Tritter, A.; Olsztyn, J.; Mock, O.; Steel, T. (August 1958). "The Problem of Programming Communication with Changing Machines: A Proposed Solution". Communications of the ACM. 1 (8): 12–18. doi:10.1145/368892.368915. Retrieved 21 February 2022.

[McKeeman-4] McKeeman et al., A Compiler Generator (1971)

[Closhen-5] Patrick Closhen, Hans-Juergen Hoffmann, et al. 1997: T-Diagrams as Visual Language to Illustrate WWW Technology, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany

[Hielscher-6] Michael Hielscher, et al.: TDiag: Entwicklung und Ausführung eines T-Diagramms, in German

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References