Translation as a language implementation technique for supercomputers
Danny Crookes · Software Engineering Journal · 1988
Implementing new languages on supercomputers is an important task, but it is also a difficult one. It is an important task because language implementation is necessary for research in language design, and language design has often been a source of new ideas for hardware design. Language implementation for supercomputers is a difficult task for many reasons. Perhaps the most significant reason is the sheer complexity of the more popular supercomputers. This paper argues that a useful and practical approach to implementing new languages on common supercomputers in a research context is to write a translator, which translates programs into Fortran source code rather than compiling them directly into assembly language. This approach has many advantages, particularly in a research environment. The paper also includes a call to supercomputer designers for greater simplicity in the programmers' view of supercomputer architectures.