PROGRAM LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR

Chapel Hill, NC... J. H. Shannon Associates, Inc. announces the
availability of a program language translator to convert Digital Equipment
Corp. PDP-11 computer series assembly programs to C. The resulting C
programs may be ported to, and executed on any computer facilitating C
language programming.

The ASSEMBLY to C translator joins a growing family of products in the
METAMORPHOSIS series of program language translators. As prepackaged
configurations of the generic translator METAMORPHOSIS, translators
ASSEMBLY to C, FORTRAN IV to C, PL/I(Subset G) to C and CMS-2M to Ada are
available for immediate delivery.

All METAMORPHOSIS series translators execute on the IBM PC, PC/XT, PC/AT,
PC/386, PC/486 and compatibles with 416K RAM, monochrome monitor, two 360K
bytes 5.25" DSDD floppy drives (or fixed Winchester disk) and optional
printer under MS/PC DOS. Generic METAMORPHOSIS and the ASSEMBLY to C
configuration package sell for $387 and $134, respectively.

J.H. Shannon Associates Inc, PO Box 597, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Phone: 919-929-6863
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Introducing: METAMORPHOSIS TRANSLATION, ASSEMBLY (PAL-11) to C

What is METAMORPHOSIS?

METAMORPHOSIS is a computer program which facilitates the transformation of
any syntactically reducible character oriented file to any other form
while preserving its synonymy.

METAMORPHOSIS is a generic program language translator. When configured
with the conversion rules embodied in the syntactical definition of the
source and target languages METAMORPHOSIS becomes a specific translator.

What is the ASSEMBLY to C translator?

Otherwise known as PRODUCTIONS these rules are offered as separate adjunct
packages to METAMORPHOSIS. One such package is the ASSEMBLY (PAL-11 ) to C
translator. In conjunction with the METAMORPHOSIS program the ASSEMBLY to
C PRODUCTION translates assembly programs written far tho DEC PDP-11
processor family into equivalent C language programs.

What are the major components of the ASSEMBLY to C translator?

The ASSEMBLY (PAL-11 ) to C translator is composed of two products; the
METAMORPHOSIS program and the ASSEMBLY to C PRODUCTION. METAMORPHOSIS
utilizes five data files in its execution procedure to conduct the
translation:

* SOURCE LANGUAGE - An ASCII file containing the ASSEMBLY language program
sample to be translated.

* TARGET LANGUAGE - The ASCII file containing the translated C program
equivalent of the ASSEMBLY program sample.

* SOURCE and TARGET PRODUCTION - An ASCII file containing a highly
communicable syntax definition (resembling an extended Backus-Naur Form
[BNF] notation) of the source ASSEMBLY and target C languages.

* COMPRESSED PRODUCTION - A file which reproduces the SOURCE and TARGET
PRODUCTION file in an optimized short-hand notation suitable for fast
processing by METAMORPHOSIS in the translation procedure.

* RAM SEGMENT - A file which locates and stores the lexical morphemes
(smallest structural language units) identified in the SOURCE and TARGET
PRODUCTION file.

METAMORPHOSIS executes independent procedures to effect the ASSEMBLY to C
translation:

* A two pass parse analysis for syntactical correctness and short-hand
compression of the SOURCE and TARGET PRODUCTION file into the COMPRESSED
PRODUCTION file.

* Guided by the conversion rules embodied in the syntactic language
definition of the COMPRESSED PRODUCTION file the ASSEMBLY SOURCE program
is reduced and disassembled into its component parts and then transformed
and reconstructed into the TARGET LANGUAGE file.

How difficult is the translator to use?

The ASSEMBLY (PAL-11) to C translator is fully automatic; executing
unattended under DOS on any IBM PC or compatible while translating 90-100%
of the source ASSEMBLY program.

Can the Translator be customized?

The ASSEMBLY to C PRODUCTION file containing the translation rules is
listable and easily edited under the tutorage of the METAMORPHOSIS User's
Guide documentation.

What other translator PRODUCTIONS are currently available?

* FORTRAN IV to C
* CMS-2M to Ada
* PL/I (Subset G) to C
* USER-DEFINED

  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
  |   From the America Online - New Product Information Services  |
  +===============================================================+
  | This information was processed from data provided by the      |
  | above mentioned company. For additional details, contact the  |
  | company at the address or telephone number indicated above.   |
  |    All submissions for this service should be addressed to    |
  |   BAKER ENTERPRISES, 20 Ferro Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080 U.S.A.  |
  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
