Data Processing with the Compiler Compiler
S A Moore · ITNOW · 1968
In the application being considered here, the Compiler Compiler accepts the definition of a data structure and generates a program which will accept and process input having this structure. There were three features of the Compiler Compiler which suggested that it might be useful in this kind of application. Firstly, the ease with which the structure of the input data could be defined. As will become apparent, this was particularly relevant in the application under discussion. Secondly, the notion of regarding a data record as an ‘instruction’ which is to be ‘compiled’ into a file, was thought to be useful. Lastly, it was considered that the machinery associated with the Compiler Compiler auxiliary statements, which permit the user to define his own instructions, would add greatly to the readability of the program with consequential ease of debugging. Atlas is a large time-sharing machine operating in a batch processing mode. It is the only machine generally available at Manchester University and is operated on a closed shop basis by the university computing service. Throughput is over 2,000 jobs per week. The university’s previous machine (Mercury) had been operated mainly on an open shop basis so that the computing service had virtually no organisation on which to build.