A syntax directed generator

The recent proliferation of algebraic translators or "compilers"--programs which translate from an algebraic language (like ALGOL, IT, or Lo) to the hardware language of a digital computer--has stimulated a good deal of work on techniques of reducing the construction cost of such programs. There have been several essentially different approaches to this problem, notably: 1. The development of a common intermediate language (UNCOL for Universal-Computer-Oriented Language [1]); for each algebraic language there would be written a translator from that language to UNCOL and for each new machine there would be written a translator from UNCOL to the language of that machine. 2. The development of general-purpose translators which accept descriptions of the particular languages between which translation is to be effected. Such programs have been called "syntax-directed" compilers, because the general algorithm is driven by what are in essence tables of syntax.