Goals

The goal of this text is to provide the reader with a general framework for understanding all of the components of the programming environment. These include all of the components listed in Figure 1.1. A secondary goal of this text is to illustrate the design alternatives which must be faced by the developer of such system software. The discussion of these design alternatives precludes an in-depth examination of more than one or two alternatives for solving any one problem, but it should provide a sound foundation for the reader to move on to advanced study of any components of the programming environment.