Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks?

Trevor Jenkins <tfj@cix.compulink.co.uk> writes:
      Some specific problems which compiling Cobol raises are the possiblity
      that sections and paragraphs may be executed sequentially or may be
      PERFORMed as if subroutines.


I suspect the reason why Cobol is not discussed in compiler books is
because compiling it really isn't very difficult. Certainly there are
features that require various implementation tricks, but in the Cobol
world those tricks are well-known. (And sometimes, programs depend on the
standard implementation tricks, rather than that the implementation be to
spec.) Most Cobol programs are highly I/O-bound, so optimizing them is a
waste of time. This eliminates most of the interest when it comes to
compiler research.


Dale Worley Dept. of Math., MIT drw@math.mit.edu
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