16 Feb
2025
16 Feb
'25
1:56 p.m.
On Feb 16, 2025, at 4:06 PM, paul.kimpel--- via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
The thing you really need for good ALGOL code generation is a target architecture
designed to support it. All of the early implementations I know about that attempted full
support of ALGOL-60 targeted a virtual machine at run time.
That's a bit of an exaggeration. True, the first compiler (for the EL-X1) used a mix
of machine code and subroutines that looked a lot like a virtual machine. But the EL-X8
compilers all generated straight machine code. Now you could argue that the X8 was a
machine with an ISP designed for Algol. Then again, the CDC 6000 surely isn't, and I
would be surprised if the CDC Algol compilers weren't machine code generators.
paul