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UNCOL was intended to make compilers economically available for each new Instruction Set Architecture and Programming Language . Each machine architecture would require just one compiler back end, and each programming language would require one compiler front end. This was a very ambitious goal in 1961 because compiler technology was in its infancy, and little was standardized in computer hardware and software.

The concept of such a universal intermediate language is old: the
SHARE report (1958) already says " has been discussed by many independent persons as long ago as 1954." Macrakis (1993) summarizes its fate:

UNCOL was an ambitious effort for the early 1960’s. An attempt to solve
the compiler-writing problem, it ultimately failed because language and
compiler technology were not yet mature.

In the 1970’s, Compiler-compiler s ultimately contributed to solving the problem that UNCOL set itself: the economical production of compilers for new languages and new machines.


UNCOL is sometimes used as a generic term for the idea of a universal intermediate language. The Architecture Neutral Distribution Format is an example of an UNCOL in this sense.


REFERENCES



  • Melvin E. Conway, "Proposal for an UNCOL", ''Communications of the ACM'' 1:3:5 (1958).

  • Jean E. Sammet, ''Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals'', Prentice-Hall, 1969. Chapter X.2: UNCOL (Significant Unimplemented Concepts), p. 708.

  • SHARE Ad-Hoc Committee on Universal Languages (J. Strong, J. Olsztyn, J. Wegstein, O. Mock, A. Tritter, T. Steel), "The Problem of Programming Communication with Changing Machines", ''Communications of the ACM'' 1:8:12 (August 1958) and 1:9:9 (September 1958).

  • Stavros Macrakis, "From UNCOL to ANDF: Progress in Standard Intermediate Languages", White Paper, Open Software Foundation Research Institute, RI-ANDF-TP2-1, January, 1992. Available at CiteSeer

  • T.B. Steel, Jr., "UNCOL: Universal Computer Oriented Language Revisited", ''Datamation'' (Jan/Feb 1960), p. 18.

  • T.B. Steel, Jr., "A First Version of UNCOL", ''Proc. Western Joint Computer Conference'' 19:371 (Los Angeles, May 9-11, 1961).

  • T.B. Steel, Jr., "UNCOL: The Myth and the Fact", ''Annual Review in Automatic Programming'' 2:325 (1961).