[Simh] BLISS and C

[Rich Alderson]

> From: Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com>
> Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:21:36 -0500

> My point was less on PL/1 and more to the point that Ken had access to BCPL
> and did not have BLISS.   But he still decided to create what would become
> B.

Ken had no tools for the PDP-7, which was part of a Graphics-1 setup (with a
Type 340 display), not even an assembler.  The first thing he wrote on the
GECOS system (not yet shortened to GCOS, since it was a GE 635) was an
assembler, which shared absolutely nothing in terms of syntax with the DEC
assembler for the system.

Remember that BCPL originated on a PDP-7, and had an 18-bit word as its only
data type.  Since Ken had only a cross assembler to start with, B was the
simplest interim solution (a BCPL subset in an interpreter).

                                                                Rich