Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Software Distribution
Message-ID: <1988Aug19.175624.19835@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <891@taux01.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 88 17:56:24 GMT

In article <891@taux01.UUCP> chaim@taux01.UUCP (Chaim Bendelac) writes:
>...  Imagine an Intermediate Program 
>Representation Standard (IPRS) along the lines of an intermediate language
>within a compiler.  Language independent, architecture independent.
>The distributor compiles and optimizes his program with his favorite 
>language compiler into its IPR, copies the IPR onto a tape and sells. 
>The buyer uses a variation on 'tar' to unload the tape and to post-process 
>the IPR program with the system-supplied architecture-optimized IPRS-to-binary 
>compiler backend.

The one problem I can think of is that it's tricky to build such a
representation in which the front end doesn't need to know *anything* about
the machine.  Things like data-type sizes often have to be decided before
the intermediate representation is generated, even if the details of the
code generation get deferred.  Perhaps not impossible, but tricky.
-- 
Intel CPUs are not defective,  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
they just act that way.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu