Translation Systems??

[Kee Hinckley]

In article <187 at opus.UUCP> rcd at opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) writes:
> >   Translation Systems is indeed a software house in Waltham. Quite small
> > (about 10 people currently). They have a set of compilers based on
> > a nice idea: separate front-ends generate common intermediate code.
> > A global (presumably good) optimizer works on this code and produces
> > optimized stuff. Then, a machine-specific code generator does the rest.
> 
> The "nice idea" is generally referred to as UNCOL, meaning UNiversal
> Compiler-Oriented Language.  The idea, by that particular name, is at least
> 25 years old.  The problems with it are not quite as well known as the
> advantages that are obvious at first glance, but they are there.
> -- 
> Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
>    ...At last it's the real thing...or close enough to pretend.



A bit of trivia here:

	"It is also tempting to compile several different languages into the
same intermediate languauge and use a common back end for the different front
ends, thereby obtaining several compilers for one machine.  However, because
of subtle differences in the viewpoints of different languages, there has been
only limited success in this direction."

			Compilers, principles, techniques, and tools.
			Aho, Sethi and Ullman
			C. 1986 Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.
			p. 20

I believe the translater in question also has to be hand-customized for each
machine, and there is a charge per line translated from then on.


				Kee Hinckley	
				...decvax!wanginst!apollo!nazgul

P.S.  Yes, that is the new Dragon Book, now available at your local bookstore.
--

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