Peter Gerwinski wrote:
Hello!
According to David Rauschenbach:
[...] In my mind, Pascal is the *perfect* language to see a Java bytecode implementation.
Something *very* similar to this already existed many years ago: UCSD Pascal. I consider this the direct ancestor of Borland Pascal. (Somebody knows some details?)
Indeed, UCSD seems to be the ancestor of Turbo Pascal (a lot of similarities). AFAIK, UCSD Pascal produced portable p-code. Certainly, the Cabot implementation of it does. The p-code can be run on any operating system (that is supported by Cabot environment?). The Cabot UCSD system has its own file system, etc., and the compiled programs run in a virtual environment which is complete with its own file system (with long filenames, etc.). The environment itself is enclosed in a file which appears to the host operating system as just a single large file. The p-code binary is very small, because all the facilities that it needs are inside the environment. The idea is that, if a port of the environment exists for your operating system, then any p-code program written for any platform will run on your operating system as well.
Now, I am writing all this from (long term) memory. I reviewed the Cabot UCSD Pascal compiler for the Pascal Magazine (ancestor of the Delphi Magazine) a few years ago, and I am writing from what I remember. I might have got some facts mixed up, but I think I remember the general idea.
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