Everything about Compiler correctness

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

1. Read the overview: Compiler correctnessA 5-minute orientation
2. Skim a recent paper: Compiler-Aided Type Correctness of Hybrid MPI-OpenMP ApplicationsInfluential work since 2022
3. Pick up a classic book: A syntax directed error recovery methodThe most-reprinted book on the subject
4. Read the landmark paper: Compiler Optimization Correctness by Temporal LogicCited 28 times
5. Go sideways: Formal verificationA closely related topic
6. Go sideways: Formal methodsA closely related topic

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

• Compiler Optimization Correctness by Temporal Logic

  David Lacey, Neil D. Jones, Eric Van Wyk · 2004 · Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation · 28 citations

• The next 700 compiler correctness theorems (functional pearl)

  Daniel Patterson, Amal Ahmed · 2019 · Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages · 26 citations

• Toward compiler implementation correctness proofs

  Laurian M. Chirica, David F. Martin · 1986 · ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems · 23 citations

• Biorthogonality, step-indexing and compiler correctness

  Nick Benton, Chung-Kil Hur · 2009 · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 15 citations

• An Extended Account of Trace-relating Compiler Correctness and Secure Compilation

  Carmine Abate, Roberto Blanco, Ştefan Ciobâcă · 2021 · ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems · 12 citations

• Proving correctness of compiler optimizations by temporal logic

  David Lacey, Neil D. Jones, Eric Van Wyk · 2002 · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 10 citations

• Design and correctness of a compiler for a non-procedural language

  Christoph M. Hoffmann · 1978 · Acta Informatica · 10 citations

• Automatically proving the correctness of compiler optimizations

  Sorin Lerner, Todd Millstein, Craig Chambers · 2003 · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 8 citations

🆕 Influential since 2022

• Compiler-Aided Type Correctness of Hybrid MPI-OpenMP Applications

  Alexander Huck, Sebastian Kreutzer, Joachim Protze · 2022 · IT Professional · 1 citations

📚 Books worth reading

• 📕A syntax directed error recovery methodLewis R. James · 1971
• Sustained Corrected-Latency Qualification of an Integrated Server Language RuntimeAnnabella Proctor · 2026

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

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