[Simh] BLISS and C

[Dave Wade]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Simh [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Bob
> Eager
> Sent: 29 January 2018 22:08
> To: simh at trailing-edge.com
> Subject: Re: [Simh] BLISS and C
> 
> On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 12:05:01 -0500
> Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
> 
> > One can argue, why did Ken not just build something more like BCPL
> > instead of B?  I can not say, maybe the brevity of { } from PL/1 was
> > more attractive than the Algol BEGIN/END style?
> 
> BCPL was, in any case, using $( $) and (later) { }. It never used BEGIN/END.
> 

The "B" compiler I used on the Honeywell L6000/L66 used { }.

> And the major drawback of BCPL (which I love) was that it was word
> oriented. Most machine architectures were not (OK, PDP-10...) One had to
> use contortions, and a special % operator, to access bytes efficiently.
> 

"B" is similar, characters were accessed by functions rather than a special operator, but you can, I think use a combination of shifts and logical operators....
... those familiar with BCPL or C who have not encountered B may find the manual here interesting...

https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/bref.html

it would be nice to find a working compiler for a word based machine...

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Dave