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Design and implementation of a diagnostic compiler for PL/I

Authors:

Richard W. Conway,

Thomas R. WilcoxAuthors Info & Claims

Communications of the ACM, Volume 16, Issue 3

Pages 169 - 179

https://doi.org/10.1145/361972.361992

Published: 01 March 1973 Publication History

Abstract

PL/C is a compiler for a dialect for PL/I. The design objective was to provide a maximum degree of diagnostic assistance in a batch processing environment. For the most part this assistance is implicit and is provided automatically by the compiler. The most remarkable characteristic of PL/C is its perseverance—it completes translation of every program submitted and continues execution until a user-established error limit is reached. This requires that the compiler repair errors encountered during both translation and execution, and the design of PL/C is dominated by this consideration.

PL/C also introduces several explicit user-controlled facilities for program testing. To accommodate these extensions to PL/I without abandoning compatibility with the IBM compiler, PL/C permits “pseudo comments”—constructions whose contents can optionally be considered either source text or comment.

In spite of the diagnostic effort PL/C is a fast and efficient processor. It effectively demonstrates that compilers can provide better diagnostic assistance than is customarily offered, even when a sophisticated source language is employed, and that this assistance need not be prohibitively costly.

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Cited By

(2023)BibliographyEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00023-1(793-813)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00023-1
Cooper KTorczon L(2023)Overview of CompilationEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00007-3(1-26)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00007-3
Siegfried RHerbert-Berger KLeune KSiegfried J(2021)Trends Of Commonly Used Programming Languages in CS1 And CS2 Learning2021 16th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE)10.1109/ICCSE51940.2021.9569444(407-412)Online publication date: 17-Aug-2021
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Index Terms

Design and implementation of a diagnostic compiler for PL/I
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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Published In

cover image Communications of the ACM

Communications of the ACM Volume 16, Issue 3

March 1973

57 pages

ISSN:0001-0782

EISSN:1557-7317

DOI:10.1145/361972

Editor:
M. Stuart Lynn
Rice Univ., Houston, TX

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 1973 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 1973

Published in CACM Volume 16, Issue 3

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Cited By

(2023)BibliographyEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00023-1(793-813)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00023-1
Cooper KTorczon L(2023)Overview of CompilationEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00007-3(1-26)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00007-3
Siegfried RHerbert-Berger KLeune KSiegfried J(2021)Trends Of Commonly Used Programming Languages in CS1 And CS2 Learning2021 16th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE)10.1109/ICCSE51940.2021.9569444(407-412)Online publication date: 17-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE51940.2021.9569444
Boulton P(2016)The Generation Of Diagnostic MessagesINFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research10.1080/03155986.1975.1173160113:2(135-146)Online publication date: 25-May-2016
https://doi.org/10.1080/03155986.1975.11731601
Endres A(2013)Early Language and Compiler Developments at IBM Europe: A Personal RetrospectionIEEE Annals of the History of Computing10.1109/MAHC.2013.3135:4(18-30)Online publication date: Oct-2013
https://doi.org/10.1109/MAHC.2013.31
(2012)BibliographyEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-088478-0.00024-4(765-785)Online publication date: 2012
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-088478-0.00024-4
Heaps HRadhakrishnan T(2006)Compaction of diagnostic messages for compilersSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.43800701097:1(139-144)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380070109
Wortman DKhaiat PLasker D(2006)Six PL/I compilersSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.43800603156:3(411-422)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380060315
Feyock SLazarus P(2006)Syntax‐directed correction of syntax errorsSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.43800602066:2(207-219)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380060206
Jeffery C(2003)Generating LR syntax error messages from examplesACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/937563.93756625:5(631-640)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2003
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