This program is a work of reconstructive archeology, a compiler for the Michigan Algorithmic Decoder (MAD) language from 1962. It first translates MAD code into C, then uses the local C compiler to make an executable binary.
For details on the MAD language, see the MAD reference manual which is shipped with the distribution and available at the project website.
Options are as follows:
Suppress binary-code generation, leave C translations in place.
Debug. Enables verbose progress nessages from parser and lexer.
Specify name of output binary; required if there is more than one sourcefile.
Dump tuples from which code is generated.
When MAD is called as a filter, the generated C is written to standard output as though -c had been used.
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>. There is a MAD resource page at http://www.catb.org/~esr/mad/).