Structured Fortran - was Re: Self modifying code, lambda calculus

On 09/21/2015 11:37 PM, Dave Wade wrote: There's always PRIMOS, the operating system used on Prime minis being in FORTRAN. Although they later adopted PL/I, both versions of the system definition ("include") files were maintained. Then there are specific dialects of FORTRAN; e.g. LRLTRAN used at Lawrence Livermore. Much of the STAR-OS was written in that--but said dialect, in addition to having numerous extensions, also allowed inline machine code statements. National's assembler for Programmable Array Logic (PAL) chips, I believe, was distributed as a FORTRAN product. Several microprocessor cross-assemblers were likewise offered by their manufacturers. In the 1960-70s, you really couldn't have a truly "portable" FORTRAN product unless you hewed to USA BASIC FORTRAN IV, which is a very small subset of what an F77 programmer might recognize as FORTRAN. But back in the 60's, every manufacturer had its own variety of FORTRAN, including (IIRC), UNIVAC's own "FORTRAN V". FORTRAN II in general was a free-for-all, varying between machines from the same manufacturer. ------------------ On a somewhat related note, the earliest published work that I can find that describes translation from one computer language to machine code involving an intermediate language is the "FOR TRANSIT" for the IBM 650. A manual scan by Paul Pierce is here: http://www.piercefuller.com/collect/650man/fortransit.pdf Basically, FORTRAN source is converted to 650 IT, which is then compiled to SOAP, which performs the assembly function. For those wondering about the notion of an "optimizing" assembler, one has to realize that 650 instructions were executed from a drum and were of the "1+1" addressing type. Calculating the optimal address of the next instruction was very tedious and a perfect task for automatic optimization. --Chuck