Jr. In revising the book Crafting a Compiler , the authors have revisited the issue of an exposition language. The available types are frequently inadequate to express the operations at hand. In the above example, a set is the data structure of choice, but neither C nor Ada provides a native data structure of this type. Any cognative advantage gained by use of a familiar programming language is lost in the details of filling in these needed types.
Algorithmic concepts are easier to exposit and understand where unnecessary detail can be omitted.
While there are many advantages that accrue from taking a language-neutral stance on algorithmic exposition, a real danger associated with this approach is that issues related to data structure choices and compiler engineering are never broached. We feel strongly that the solution here is to address these issues directly in the text, but not in the algorithm's primary exposition.