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5Conclusions
6.PP
7It is appropriate to consider,
8given the amount of time invested in rewriting the interpreter,
9whether the time was well spent, or whether a code-generator
10could have been written with an equivalent amount of effort.
11The Berkeley Pascal system is being modified to interface
12to the code generator of the portable C compiler with
13not much more work than was involved in rewritting
14.I px .
15However this compiler will probably not supercede the interpreter
16in an instructional environment as the
17necessary loading and assembly processes will slow the
18compilation process to a noticeable degree.
19This effect will be further exaggerated because
20student users spend more time in compilation than in execution.
21Measurements over the course of a quarter at Berkeley with a mixture
22of students from beginning programming to upper division compiler
23construction show that the amount of time in compilation exceeds the amount
24of time spent in the interpreter, the ratio being approximately 60/40.
25.PP
26A more promising approach might have been a throw-away code generator
27such as was done for the
28.SM
29WATFIV
30.NL
31system.
32However the addition of high-quality post-mortem and interactive
33debugging facilities become much more difficult to provide than
34in the interpreter environment.
35