Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler

gah4 <gah4@u.washington.edu>
Mon, 12 Sep 2022 13:01:21 -0700 (PDT)

          From comp.compilers
Related articles
Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler luser.droog@gmail.com (luser droog) (2022-09-07)
Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler luser.droog@gmail.com (luser droog) (2022-09-09)
Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler luser.droog@gmail.com (luser droog) (2022-09-11)
Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com (Christopher F Clark) (2022-09-12)
Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler gah4@u.washington.edu (gah4) (2022-09-12)
Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com (Christopher F Clark) (2022-09-13)
Re: source languages, was Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler gneuner2@comcast.net (George Neuner) (2022-09-14)
Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler luser.droog@gmail.com (luser droog) (2022-09-14)
Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler gah4@u.washington.edu (gah4) (2022-09-14)
Re: Wrestling with phase 1 of a C compiler luser.droog@gmail.com (luser droog) (2022-09-15)
| List of all articles for this month |
From: gah4 <gah4@u.washington.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2022 13:01:21 -0700 (PDT)
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 22-09-001 22-09-004
Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="41271"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com"
Keywords: history, PL/I, comment
Posted-Date: 12 Sep 2022 18:26:57 EDT
In-Reply-To: 22-09-004

On Monday, September 12, 2022 at 12:46:47 PM UTC-7, christoph...@compiler-resources.com wrote:


(snip)


> C is a nice small imperative language. It's fine for expressing those
> kinds of semantics. The C preprocessor is both simple and powerful, but it
> doesn't change the nature of C. You cannot really do "compilation" in the
> C preprocessor.


On of the earlier languages I knew, and maybe still favorite, is PL/I.


PL/I does have a powerful preprocessor, though I don't know so many
actually using its power. It even has preprocessor procedures, if you
need them.


The most use of the power I have seen, is one for unrolling DO loops,
which unrolls smaller loops, but not larger ones, with either a
preprocessor %DO, or a real DO.


I do remember, though, first knowing abuot no preprocessor in Java,
and the trend of PL/I to C to Java, in decreasing preprocessor power.
[PL/I had its charms but I wouldn't want to write functional code
in it, either. -John]

Post a followup to this message

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.