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Conference turris::languages

Title:	Languages
Notice:	Speaking In Tongues
Moderator:	TLE::TOKLAS::FELDMAN

Created:	Sat Jan 25 1986
Last Modified:	Wed May 21 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	394
Total number of notes:	2683

232.0. "Is the word 'collector' a compiler term?" by CREDIT::OCONNELL (Mike) Wed May 03 1989 12:15

    This is just a quick sanity check on the use of an 'industry term'.  It
    impacts the name for a new product.
    
    Do the words  'collect' or 'collector' mean anything in the compiler
    field?  I was told that 'collector' was an industry term used to
    describe resolving external code references.  I am most interested
    in hearing from the folks in Europe on this one.
    
    Please respond with a yea or nay and a brief definition if the term is
    used by the/your/some industry in some way.
    
    Thanks for your help.
    
    Mike
    DBS Product Management

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
232.1	I'm not from Europe, though	MINAR::BISHOP		`Wed May 03 1989 14:25`	5
	I've never heard it. I've worked on VAX Pascal and BLISS for the last four-five years. I've been to a conference on compilers, and didn't hear the term there, either. -John Bishop
232.2		TLE::BRETT		`Wed May 03 1989 16:19`	3
	Except, of course, for a 'garbage collector'. /Bevin
232.3		MINAR::BISHOP		`Wed May 03 1989 18:27`	3
	True. But I've never heard anyone talk about it as just a plain "collector". -John
232.4		TOKLAS::FELDMAN	PDS, our next success	`Wed May 03 1989 20:21`	4
	And the most common sorts of tool for resolving external code references are called linkers, loaders, or linking loaders. Gary
232.5	UNIVAC jargon?	FLUME::reeves	Jon Reeves, ULTRIX compiler group	`Thu May 04 1989 11:32`	10
	The only place I've heard the term was at (Remington Rand/Sperry) (Univac) (Unisys), where I maintained a product of that name and description for 2 years. Even there, though, I was acutely aware that nobody else called it that, and I usually referred to it as a linkage editor. (Incidentally, that particular product is now largely obsolete, thanks to another project I worked on there.) That same organization had strange ideas about what constituted a "bank" and a "segment", too. Guess it comes from using one's complement and 36-bit words :-).
232.6	""	NSDC::GHAVAMI		`Mon May 08 1989 12:24`	17
	Hi, I am in Europe but I have never heard anything about a "collector" without "garbage" in front of it! The only information found: 1./ In PCA the "collector" gathers performance or test coverage data on a running user program and writing that data to a performance data file !! 2./ I have heard that in the book "Engineering a compiler ... " (I cannot remember the exact name) from DIGITAL PRESS the term "collector" is discussed in some context (I don't know in which because unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to read it). Farhad.
232.7	The mystery is solved.	CREDIT::OCONNELL	Mike	`Mon May 08 1989 15:22`	5
	Thanks for your generous responses. The .5 note hits the nail on the head. The individual who associated collector with compilers came from Sperry. Makes sense. Mike
232.8	yes - there have been collectors	COMICS::DEMORGAN	Richard De Morgan, UK CSC/CS	`Thu May 11 1989 10:04`	4
	The term "collector" HAS been used in Europe for what we would call a linker. It collects various compiled modules and pre-compiled modules from libraries. If I recall, the last time I saw it was in the ICL 2900 series.