By Marion C. Gray
Communications of the ACM,
April 1961,
Vol. 4 No. 4, Page 169
10.1145/355578.366318
Comments
The FORTRAN II source language [1, 2] places rather severe restrictions on the form a subscript may take, primarily because of the manner in which indices are incremented in iterative loops. In the process of constructing a compiler for a medium-sized (8008-word memory) computer which will accept the FORTRAN II source language, it became clear that the “recursive address calculation” scheme, as used in the FORTRAN compilers to minimize object-program running time, was probably not the best one to use. This system, described in some detail by Samelson and Bauer [3], requires that the subscript expression be a linear function of the subscripting variable. The alternative, which requires complete evaluation of the “storage mapping function”, is usually rejected because of the time required for the object program to perform the necessary address calculation.
The full text of this article is premium content
No entries found
Log in to Read the Full Article
Need Access?
Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.
Create a Web Account
If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.
Join the ACM
Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.
Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine
Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.
Purchase the Article
Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.
