Re: [9fans] APL

[tlaronde@polynum.com]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 01:58:16AM -0700, arnold@skeeve.com wrote:
> tlaronde@polynum.com wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 09:44:54PM +0000, Charles Forsyth wrote:
> > > I'm fairly sure Thompson wrote it on sabbatical in Berkeley. I think he
> > > also wrote the first version of a Pascal compiler.
> > > Pascal isn't a difficult language but I remember that compiler having an
> > > unusual style. I think others reworked it significantly later,
> > > so if it's there at all it's worth looking at the earliest possible one.
> > > 
> >
> > The Pascal compiler rings a bell... It would be fun indeed to derived a
> > version from it so that, finally, TeX and al. could be "natively"
> > compiled instead of converting the (pseudo) Pascal to C (this is web2c
> > purpose or, as I have named it, pp2rc---Pseudo Pascal to Raw C).
> 
> There was an interpreter for P-code and (I think later) a compiler
> for the Vax. You'd have to port it to current architectures, and
> compiling TeX would probably make TeX run more slowly than the C version.
> 
> The Berkeley Pascals were some of the compilers used for "Software Tools
> in Pascal".

The Pascal version would probably be a bit slower. And it would be more
an alternative to verify the code than a primary way, since in fact
D.E.K. has not written the program in some Pascal but in Algol, a high
level abstract description, the wizardry being in the data structures.
And, indeed, only the control flows are being translated from pseudo 
Pascal to C, the core---the data structures---being handled by ad-hoc
code.

And for the architectures, like other compilers, the aim would be to
convert to some intermediate language (perhaps assembly) and to borrow
the back-ends.

But it is all vaporware: I have to implement supplementary primitives
for the new version of LaTeX and I'm already late (not started yet)...
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                     http://www.kergis.com/
                    http://kertex.kergis.com/
                       http://www.sbfa.fr/
Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89  250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C

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