eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (01/10/85)
With all this talk about levels and portability, I was really wondering
how much of this portability was really due to the way most compilers
for these languages got started.
Pascal really only took off [as a popular language] after the P4 compiler
got to the US. [I use to sit on the Pascal Committee along with others
reading this news group.] Similarly, the pcc really makes ports of C
relatively easy. Consider that your typical FORTRAN compiler of the past
always had to start from "scratch." [ This latter is certainly good for
extensions, "bells and whistles," white walls extra.] Certainly more
and more Pascal and C compilers are not using P4 or pcc, but I was
wondering what people thought about what was really being ported:
the "language" or was it really the "compiler."
--eugene miya
NASA Ames Research Center
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