[Simh] BLISS and C

[Phil Budne]

> I also think that Dave was asking for a B compiler, and not a BCPL compiler...

Amongst the PDP-7 UNIX files was a B runtime, which someone on the
team was able to decipher well enough to write a B compiler in a C
subset:

https://github.com/DoctorWkt/pdp7-unix/blob/master/tools/b.c

And then make self-hosting, in:
https://github.com/DoctorWkt/pdp7-unix/tree/master/src/other

ISTR, the compiler generates something like more threaded code, as
opposed native instructions, but the output is fed to the assembler
(along with runtime source) to make an executable.

A paper I first saw VERY recently describes Thompson bringing up the B
interpreter on the CPU of a Merganthaller phototypsetter (since the
vendor supplied S/W was too limited for them to use).

Ah:
https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/202/summer.scanned.pdf
document p8 (pdf p9)

    ... KLT resurected the B interpreter.  B is a good language for a
    16-bit word-oriented minicomputer, and most of our subsequent 202
    programs have been written in B.