Abstract
This paper describes the implementation of a pedagogical version of Evalquote with a set of Fortran subroutines. Their study enables the user to understand the programming machinery needed to interpret Lisp programs; the implementation of the subroutines allows him to run pure Lisp in machines for which only Fortran is available. The approach used in this paper is to define a stack-machine capable of executing a sequence of pseudo-instructions which represent a Lisp program in post-fixed notation. These instructions are easily simulated by Fortran subroutines. Once the subroutines are implemented in a computer it is a simple matter to manually transcribe Evalquote into a sequence of these pseudo-instructions and thus obtain a Lisp interpreter with a minimum of programming effort. The paper does not attempt to describe a complete and efficient Lisp interpreter; instead, it concentrates on the description of a minimal set of pseudo-instructions and their actions.
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References
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Cohen, J., Zuckerman, C. Evalquote in simple Fortran: A tutorial on interpreting Lisp. BIT 12, 299–317 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01932302
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01932302