The Implementation of the Icon Programming Language

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This book describes the implementation of Icon in detail. It received uniformly good reviews, with comments such as "a classic" and "a fascinating read". Highlights include:

Icon's virtual machine

the interpreter for the virtual machine

generators and goal-directed evaluation

data representation

string manipulation

structures

memory management

The book describes the implementation of Version 6 of Icon. Most of the material in the book still is relevant. Two technical reports (IPD112 and IPD239) supplement the book to describe subsequent changes. The implementation of Icon's graphics facilities is not described.

Contents

Chapters Introduction Icon Language Overview Organization of the Implementation Values and Variables Strings and Csets Lists Sets and Tables The Interpreter Expression Evaluation Functions, Procedures, and Co-Expressions Storage Management Run-Time Support Operations Appendices Data Structures Virtual machine Instructions Virtual Machine Code Adding Functions and Data Types Projects Solution to Selected Exercises References Index

Publication information: The Implementation of the Icon Programming Language, Ralph E. Griswold and Madge T. Griswold, Princeton University Press, 1986. 336 pages, hardbound with dust cover, acid-free paper. This book is no longer in print, but may be available from dealers of used books.