A primitive-based strategy for producing efficient code for very high level programs

This paper contrasts two very different strategies for improving the execution time performance of very high level language programs. An APL compiler has been developed which has two backends, one which produces IBM S/370 assembly code (APL/370) and one which produces C source code (APL/C). The result of each compilation path is compared for a large selection of APL benchmark programs. The results indicate that the efficient implementation of canned low level primitive routines can be a very effective optimization strategy for very high level languages. © 1993.