On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 02:57:44AM -0700, arn...@skeeve.com wrote:
> This is getting off topic ...
>
Yes... ;-)
> > > There was an interpreter for P-code and (I think later) a compiler
> > > for the Vax. You'd have to port it to current architectures, and
> > > compiling TeX would probably make TeX run more slowly than the C version.
> > >
> > > The Berkeley Pascals were some of the compilers used for "Software Tools
> > > in Pascal".
> >
> > The Pascal version would probably be a bit slower. And it would be more
> > an alternative to verify the code than a primary way, since in fact
> > D.E.K. has not written the program in some Pascal but in Algol, a high
> > level abstract description, the wizardry being in the data structures.
>
> It's Pascal, but in literate form with WEB. I've read "Tex: The Program". :-)
What I wanted to say is that D.E.K. has put aside all that is "system
dependent". Yes it's Pascal, but the very least common denominator with
all that is system dependent isolated so that porting (or translating)
is easy with the change files and the chunks identified.
I never managed to like Pascal (the language taught when I
was---vaguely---in college) and I, first, would have liked that it was
CWEB and not WEB (C and not Pascal). But, indeed, it is an abstract way
of describing and prevent a myriad of hasardous hacks. So D.E.K.'s was
not a bad choice alltogether...
--
Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
http://www.kergis.com/
http://kertex.kergis.com/
http://www.sbfa.fr/
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