Beyond ALBE/P: Language neutral form

ALBE/P is a language-based CRT editor for PASCAL programs. The CRT screen serves as a window through which a programmer can view and modify a “pretty-printed” picture of any part of a PASCAL program. The ALBE/P system differs from conventional screen-oriented text editors in that the program is stored as a PASCAL parse tree and the editing operations are designed specifically for the PASCAL language. Moreover, because ALBE/P is language-based, it will not accept programs with local syntax errors (e.g., ill-formed expressions) or global errors (e.g., undeclared variables).The system is also an effective tool for developing and maintaining application systems and subroutine packages in multiple language environments. Programs can be entered in Language-Neutral Form (LNF), a PASCAL subset with language features common to C, PL/I, and ALGOL. Then, ALBE will generate a PASCAL program to be run and debugged under the host operating system. When program development is complete, ALBE/LNF will generate equivalent programs for the desired target languages and operating system environments. Currently, ALBE/LNF supports PASCAL, C, and FORTRAN under VAX/VMS.