fderavi@cybavax.UUCP (F. Deravi Elec. Eng.) (11/01/84)
Is there a C language interpreter anywhere in the World ?
F.Deravi ({vax135,mcvax,edcad}!ukc!ru-cs44!cybavax!fderavi)
Dept. Elec. Eng.,
Univ. Coll. Swansea,
Wales.honey@down.FUN (11/04/84)
ags computers has one that they will unleash on the world by early '85. peter
fderavi@cybavax.UUCP (F. Deravi Elec. Eng.) (11/14/84)
This is a summary of the replies I recieved to my maiden article: > Is there a C language interpreter anywhere in the World ? May be I was hoping that someone would send me the sources for an interpreter. But nothing as good as that happened. Sue-Ken Yap at Rochester pointed out the ambiguity in the notion of an interpreter. "Tiny C" compiles to an intermediate code and then interprets this. Is this the Real Thing ? Eric C. Brown at Utah and Vincent Gonzalez at teddy(!) mentioned Instant-C, a product for IBM-PC by Rational Systems Inc. (POB 480, Natick, Mass. 01760). Priced at about $500 with claimed source code to execution time of 3 seconds. dfi@ihufx suggested that 'awk' may be considered as a C interpreter !! Michael Jones at North Carolina had the most reassuring reply: > Yes there is. I would be grateful for further information and comments about C interpreters, their possible utility and problems that may be associated with writing them. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - login name : fderavi machine name: cybavax uucp address: {UK}!ukc!ru-cs44!cybavax!fderavi JANET address: fderavi@swxa/234207920018 Dept. Electrical Engineering, University College, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
steven@mcvax.UUCP (Steven Pemberton) (11/16/84)
I've just read a review of a C compiler for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, which claims ".. or you can enter direct mode and execute C from the keyboard. This last possibility is unique, as it's very unusual to find a compiler that accepts direct statements in the same way that BASIC does." The review is in Personal Computer World Nov. 84, and they say that the compiler comes from Hisoft, 180 High St North, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, UK, price 25 pounds stirling (which sounds cheap to me). Steven Pemberton, CWI, Amsterdam; steven@mcvax. "People everywhere saying Peace on Earth - just as soon as we've won this war"
tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) (11/16/84)
The difference between a compiler and an interpreter is really not that great if the translator front end is well designed, such that it spits out a completely machine-independent attributed parse tree. A compiling back end walks the tree and spits out code; an interpreting back end (hmm, maybe this should go to net.motss -- ow! Stop hitting me!) walks the tree and executes code. The two back ends will probably have to be different programs, but there is a lot of overlap in the decisions on the two. Unfortunately, PCC does not use this approach, since the front end emits an APT which is interspersed with assembly code.... -- Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim (supposedly) "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." Liber AL, II:9.