Online Computer Terms Dictionary - P

P-code

<language> The intermediate language produced by the Pascal-P compiler. P-code is the assembly language for a hypothetical stack machine, the P-machine, said to imitate the instruction set of the Burroughs 6700.

The term was first used in the Wirth reference below. Byte articles on writing a Pascal Compiler in Northstar BASIC (ca Aug 1978) also used the term.

P-code was initially the intermediate code generated by the P2 compiler from ETH Zurich. P-code was later used as the intermediate language in the UCSD Pascal System, and in its two main derivatives, Apple Pascal and the UCSD P-system.

Variants: P2 P-code, P4 P-code, UCSD P-code, LASL P-code.

[Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, N. Wirth, P-H 1976].

["A Comparison of PASCAL Intermediate Languages", P.A. Nelson, SIGPLAN Notices 14(8):208-213, Aug 1979].

(2004-11-08)