The LRLTRAN compiler

• Published in: Communications of the ACM 1968-11, Vol.11 (11), p.747-755
• Main Authors: Mendicino, Sam F., Hughes, Robert A., Martin, Jeanne T., McMahon, Frank H., Ranelletti, John E., Zwakenberg, Richard G.
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: General and reference; General and reference / Document types; Social and professional topics; Social and professional topics / Professional topics; Social and professional topics / Professional topics / Management of computing and information systems; Software and its engineering; Software and its engineering / Software creation and management; Software and its engineering / Software notations and tools; Software and its engineering / Software notations and tools / Compilers; Software and its engineering / Software notations and tools / General programming languages
• ISSN: 0001-0782; 1557-7317
• DOI: 10.1145/364139.364154

Extensive software problems confront an organization which possesses a number of different computers and which frequently acquire new ones. To maintain cohesion, a system must be developed, written in a high level language, which minimizes machine dependencies and isolates those which are necessary. A language and a compiler for that language are discussed here. The language, called LRLTRAN, is a heavily augmented FORTRAN. The three-pass compiler makes use internally of a postfix Polish notation (pass I to pass II) and a free representation referred to as a "composite blocking table" (pass I to pass III). Machine-independent optimization occurs in pass II and DO-loop and machine-dependent optimization in pass III.