Comp. gen : a language definition system

A compiler generator is a system which accepts the formal description of a computer language and produces a compiler capable of translating sentences in the language into a usable form. The goal of this project was not to produce a system suitable for industry but rather suitable for an academic environment. The emphasis, therefore, was placed on providing simplicity of input, a facility to watch the actions of the resultant compiler and a meaningful analysis of the input. COMP.GEN was written in the high-level language SNOBOL4 and has been implemented at two separate facilities: California State University, Northridge's C.D.C. 3170 and the City of Los Angeles' I.B.M. 370/155 computers. Both have undergone extensive testing and show no sign of problems. The purpose of this report will be to describe the motivation for choosing a compiler generator project and the manner in which it was implemented. Also included is the instruction manual on how to use COMP.GEN and numerous examples of test runs.