QUIP: a system for automatic program generation

Abstract

Extensive programming effort is expended in the rewriting of minor variations of already existing programs. One method of reducing this redundant effort is to devise a method for automatically generating programs for the solution of any of a class of problems. One such technique is illustrated in Figure 1. A generator program produces, in response to user inputs, an output program for the solution of a particular problem. User inputs to the generator can be either in the form of commands in a special purpose language (e.g., macro statement) or responses to computer-generated queries. The output code produced by such a system is free of coding errors usual in handwritten programs. The output program is a free-standing entity which can be used for production data processing without user intervention. The literature contains a number of references to this type of approach.