4 ms·

Here is a trivia question for you. What language was the first optimizing compiler written in?

• Tao331 5y ago
  IIRC this is the punchline of a story about Seymour Cray programming a BIOS in octal via front switches and blinkenlights. Or somewhere in that ballpark. It's a person, so the answer is DNA.
  • javajosh 5y ago
    Surely a more accurate answer would be "Cray's bookshelf".
  • wglb 5y ago
    Nope. This happened before Seymour was at Control Data.
• pinewurst 5y ago
  It was the initial IBM FORTRAN written in 704 assembler. Very much an optimizing compiler.
  • wglb 5y ago
    Not quite. The idea of "basic blocks", key to optimizing compiler, was invented by the team that wrote the Fortran I compiler in Fortran I. See https://ucla-biostat-257-2020spring.github.io/readings/fortran.pdf https://ucla-biostat-257-2020spring.github.io/readings/fortr...
    • rst 5y ago
      The first Fortran I compiler is the one pinewurst was referring to, and it was written for the 704 -- in 704 assembly. Source code is here -- this is Fortran II (basically Fortran I plus provision for separately compiled subprograms), but obviously still assembly: http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTRAN/index.html#Source_code http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTRAN/index.h... (The article in the course reading you cited also correctly states that the compiler was written in assembly, for the 704.)
      • wglb 5y ago
        That is why I posted the question about "optomizing" compiler.
        • rst 5y ago
          Not sure what you mean here... Fortran I had a damn good optimizer, and the papers on it introduced a whole lot of terminology (e.g., as above, "basic block") which is still in use. And it was written for the 704, in assembly.