[COFF] Re: Of PL/I

On Sun, Apr 7, 2024 at 7:10 PM Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> wrote: pretty much 1-for-1 except for handling character data. One could replace Fortran's Hollerith-encoded character strings with an integer array on which a PL/I character string has been overlay defined. Back in 1977 I translated the TOPS-10 version of the Adventure game, which was in Fortran, into PL/I so that I could run it on our batch S/370 mainframe. I used an IBM 3277 transaction terminal as the interactive interface. I very carefully translated the TOPS-10 Fortran into IBM PL/I line by line, except for the character data where I bit the bullet and used pure PL/I character variables. The whole thing ran the very first time and had only one obscure bug: instead of saying PLOVER ROOM as one did in the TOPS-10 version, you had to say PLOVERROOM. Once that bug was fixed the PL/I version worked like a charm until we got our VAX, where I did another port of the TOPS-10 program so that it ran under VAX/VMS. This time it stayed in Fortran, but again there was funny business with character strings because of the 36 vs. 32 bit word size. If I were to write an automated, general Fortran-to-PL/I translator, SNOBOL would be my language of choice. -Paul W. -Paul W.