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A List‐based Virtual Machine for COBOL
Author(s) -
TAMM BORIS,
TAVETER KULDAR
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-024x(199612)26:12<1347::aid-spe61>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - cobol , computer science , programming language , set (abstract data type) , virtual machine , software engineering , virtual finite state machine , abstract machine , operating system
The concepts of COBOL can be well represented by a virtual machine that makes use of descriptors and descriptor lists. The architecture of such virtual machine for COBOL, which supports incremental compilation, is presented in this paper. The structure of different descriptors and descriptor lists of the virtual machine is described. Principles of incremental compilation of COBOL paragraphs are given. The use of stacks for holding temporary values and subprogram parameters is explained. Addressing modes of the virtual machine are discussed, and its instruction set is presented. Options for efficient implementation of the virtual machine on a real machine are discussed.