[cctalk] Re: Elliott Algol

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Feb 16, 2025, at 4:06 PM, paul.kimpel--- via cctalk 
> <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> The thing you really need for good ALGOL code generation is a target 
> architecture designed to support it. All of the early implementations I know 
> about that attempted full support of ALGOL-60 targeted a virtual machine at 
> run time. 

That's a bit of an exaggeration.  True, the first compiler (for the EL-X1) used 
a mix of machine code and subroutines that looked a lot like a virtual machine. 
 But the EL-X8 compilers all generated straight machine code.  Now you could 
argue that the X8 was a machine with an ISP designed for Algol.  Then again, 
the CDC 6000 surely isn't, and I would be surprised if the CDC Algol compilers 
weren't machine code generators.

        paul