SLIC is a metacompiler that allows the compiler writer to describe a programming language and the transformation of programs written in that language into machine executable code. SLIC produces fast executable machine code, not tables. SLIC has five distinct functions:
SYNTAX equations transforms the input source (characters) into a list, tree structure representation of the statements being compiled.
GENERATOR operates on lists or trees produced by syntax equations or other generators to produce PSEUDO machine code sequences.
SO (Sequence Optimization) an optional process that transforms a sequence of PSEUDO instructions, produced by generators, into a new optimized sequence.
PSEUDO instructions produce a sequence of MACHOPs, machine instructions, much like a MACRO in assembly language. A PSEUDO machine is defined to best implement the language being complied.
MACHOP is special procedures called from PSEUDO and GENERATOR. They define an internal assembler instruction or data storage operator (DB, DW, DD...) and it's transformation into binary code of the target machine.