Which comes first, languages or compilers?

gah4 <gah4@u.washington.edu>
Wed, 25 Oct 2023 12:39:24 -0700

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From: gah4 <gah4@u.washington.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 12:39:24 -0700
Organization: Compilers Central
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Keywords: design, question, comment
Posted-Date: 26 Oct 2023 07:57:44 EDT

Not from a Quora question, but one did remind me.


Which (well known) languages were mostly defined before the first
compiler was written? (Not counting the one you did for a homework
assignment.)


As well as I know it, and similar to the way IBM defined the S/360
architecture before five different groups started implementing it,
PL/I (nee NPL) was pretty much completely described before groups
started implementing it. There is a published IBM manual with that
description.


I don't count Fortran0, as I believe Knuth named an early description
before the first Fortran compiler was written.


It is somewhat convenient to adapt the language when you find parts
harder to implement than was thought. PL/I mostly didn't do that.
[COBOL, Algol60 and 68, Ada. Maybe Pascal? -John]

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