SOME STATISTICS FROM ALGOL PROGRAMS
Brian A. Wichmann · 1970
A substantial amount of statistical information is given of Algol programs run at the National Physical Laboratory. This involved the monitoring of 155 million instructions. Information from this can be used by compiler-writers in deciding which features of a compiler are worth optimising. Statistics are also given of the occurrence of basic symbols in source text and of instructions in compiled programs. From the execution statistics, an Algol mix has been devised. This has been run on 18 Algol systems giving a clear indication of the weaknesses and merits of each one, as well as a comparison of their execution speeds.