Program control via transition matrices: a novel application of micro-programming

The problem of processing and interpreting character-strings in a systematic, efficiently implementable manner has given rise to a variety of decision-(or transition-) table and transition-diagram techniques. These have been used in the design and/or coding of string-oriented processors, such as lexical analysis protions of compilers. All these techniques share in common the idea of an input driven transition control.This report describes a micro-coded implementation fo a particularly rich concept--the transition matrix (TM). The micro-coded interpreter (ITM) executes the flow-of-control implicit within the structure of the TM. The TM may be coded in a natural, easy to use language (LTMφSP), and then be automatically translated into ITM-usable form by a user-level translator called TMφSP. The completed system (ITM and TMφSP) permits TM-oriented decision-making techniques to be utilized in virtually any task that can be described by means of transition matrix.