Introduction to Compiler Construction in a Java World

Appendix B

j-- Language

B.1 Introduction

j-- is a subset of Java and is the language that our example compiler translates to JVM

code. It has a little less than half the syntax of Java. It has classes; it has ints, booleans,

chars, and Strings; and it has many Java operators. The ‘j’ is in the name because j-- is

derived from Java; the ‘--’ is there because j-- has less functionality than does Java. The

exercises in the text involve adding to this language. We add fragments of Java that are not

already in j--.

B.2 j-- Program and Its Class Declarations

A j-- program looks very much like a Java program. It can have an optional package state-

ment, follow ...