Re: GC in Ada

["Jeffrey R. Carter" <jrcarter@acm.org>]

Pascal Obry wrote:
> 
> I've used it... log time ago and IIRC it was using a kind of p-code a-la
> Pascal. This is just a kind of virtual machine to me...

I guess it's a matter of semantics. If the program reads the source and 
performs the actions required by it, I consider it an interpreter. What 
activities it uses internally to perform that interpretation are an 
elephant.

If the program converts the source into another form which can later be 
executed by appropriate HW or an emulator, then I call it a compiler. 
UCSD Pascal had a Pascal-to-P-code compiler. The P-code could be 
executed later, on a P-code machine or, more commonly, through an 
emulator. (I'm not aware of there ever being a P-code machine, which is 
why it's often referred to as a virtual machine. But there's no reason 
there couldn't have been one.) Java works similarly.

My understanding is that Ada-Ed was in the former category.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"C++ is like giving an AK-47 to a monk, shooting him
full of crack and letting him loose in a mall and
expecting him to balance your checking account
'when he has the time.'"
Drew Olbrich
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