Re: Compiler history

"John H. Lindsay" <jlindsay@kingston.net>
13 Jul 2004 22:15:17 -0400

          From comp.compilers
Related articles
Compiler history toba12@freemail.hu (2004-07-11)
Re: Compiler history jlindsay@kingston.net (John H. Lindsay) (2004-07-13)
Re: Compiler history jlindsay@kingston.net (John H. Lindsay) (2004-07-13)
Re: Compiler history smidkiff@purdue.edu (2004-07-15)
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From: "John H. Lindsay" <jlindsay@kingston.net>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 13 Jul 2004 22:15:17 -0400
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
References: 04-07-006
Keywords: history
Posted-Date: 13 Jul 2004 22:15:17 EDT

toba wrote:
..... But what was before the '60s and after? Can someone
> say a few word about it please?
.....


Most of the compilers were top-down recursive descent (look up
recursive descent!) compilers. Given a grammar that described the
language with writing a compiler in mind, it was straight-forward (not
necessarily easy or quick) to write an ad hoc compiler. Such
compilers had the possibility or giving very specific, descriptive,
helpful, context sensitive error messages.


John.
--
John H. Lindsay jlin_DELETE_THIS_SPAM_ZOT_dsay@kingston.net
48 Fairway Hill Crescent, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7M 2B4.
Phone: (613) 546-6988
[Until Algol 60 was described with BNF, there was no common
way to describe a grammar. -John]




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