Computers 2014, 3, 69-116; doi:10.3390/computers3030069 OPEN ACCESS computers ISSN 2073-431X www.mdpi.com/journal/computers Article An ECMA-55 Minimal BASIC Compiler for x86-64 Linux® John Gatewood Ham Burapha University, Faculty of Informatics, 169 Bangsaen Road, Tambon Saensuk, Amphur Muang, Changwat Chonburi 20131, Thailand; E-mail:
[email protected] Received: 24 July 2014; in revised form: 17 September 2014 / Accepted: 1 October 2014 / Published: 1 October 2014 Abstract: This paper describes a new non-optimizing compiler for the ECMA-55 Minimal BASIC language that generates x86-64 assembler code for use on the x86-64 Linux® [1] 3.x platform. The compiler was implemented in C99 and the generated assembly language is in the AT&T style and is for the GNU assembler. The generated code is stand-alone and does not require any shared libraries to run, since it makes system calls to the Linux® kernel directly. The floating point math uses the Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions and the compiler fully implements all of the floating point exception handling required by the ECMA-55 standard. This compiler is designed to be small, simple, and easy to understand for people who want to study a compiler that actually implements full error checking on floating point on x86-64 CPUs even if those people have little programming experience. The generated assembly code is also designed to be simple to read. Keywords: BASIC; compiler; AMD64; INTEL64; EM64T; x86-64; assembly 1. Introduction The Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) language was invented by John G.