P-code


P-code

(language)The intermediate language produced by thePascal-P compiler. P-code is the assembly language fora hypothetical stack machine, the P-machine, said to imitatethe instruction set of the Burroughs 6700.

The term was first used in the Wirth reference below. Bytearticles on writing a Pascal Compiler in Northstar BASIC (caAug 1978) also used the term.

P-code was initially the intermediate code generated by the P2compiler from ETH Zurich. P-code was later used as theintermediate language in the UCSD Pascal System, and in itstwo main derivatives, Apple Pascal and the UCSD P-system.

Variants: P2 P-code, P4 P-code, UCSD P-code, LASL P-code.

[Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, N. Wirth, P-H 1976].

["A Comparison of PASCAL Intermediate Languages", P.A. Nelson,SIGPLAN Notices 14(8):208-213, Aug 1979].