Self modifying code, lambda calculus - Re: ENIAC programming

[Chuck Guzis]

On 09/21/2015 06:23 PM, Mouse wrote:
>> Wirth & Co. started the project in FORTRAN, but gave up, particularly
>> when it was realized that implementing data structures and recursion
>> in FORTRAN was going to be a bit of a task.
>
> I think that if I wanted to build a Pascal compiler in FORTRAN I would
> build a p-code engine in FORTRAN and implement the compiler in that.
>
> But I don't know if they had the concepts to do that.  Not that I think
> that inventing a p-code engine was beyond them, but it certainly would
> have raised the bar.

Wirth and Co. didn't invent P-code.  I worked with a fellow who did a 
P-code implementation of COBOL back in the 60s (it ran in a 6600 PP).

--Chuck