Annual Review in Automatic Programming focuses on the techniques of automatic programming used with digital computers. Topics covered range from the design of machine-independent programming languages to the use of recursive procedures in ALGOL 60. A multi-pass translation scheme for ALGOL 60 is described, along with some commercial source languages. The structure and use of the syntax-directed compiler is also considered. Comprised of 12 chapters, this volume begins with a discussion on the basic ideas involved in the description of a computing process as a program for a computer, expressed in a formal symbolic language such as ALGOL 60. The emphasis is on the information conveyed by the program constituents (semantics), rather than the particular form used (syntax). Subsequent chapters focus on generalized ALGOL; the design of machine-independent programming languages; JOVIAL, a programming language for real-time command systems; and a complete ALGOL translator, expressed in ALGOL itself. A detailed description of the compiler compiler is also presented, together with the Rapidwrite program. The final chapter is devoted to file processing in SEAL (Standard Electronic Accounting Language). This monograph will be of interest to computer programmers.
