From: "Jeffry R. Abramson" <jeffryrabramson@gmail.com>
To: Marc Rochkind <mrochkind@gmail.com>
Cc: tuhs@tuhs.org
Subject: [TUHS] Re: History of non-Bell C compilers?
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:27:16 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <93bff23afe8639fef322a7a06ed311d939ddcb29.camel@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAOkr1zVewrFznWXHopfKLx+kj+6SeNPC1Lxq_0=dpiJvstpqXw@mail.gmail.com>
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In grad school in the early 80's I was developing instrumentation built
around a CompuPro S-100 system running CP/M-86. I used the Computer
Innovations C compiler https://www.clipshop.ca/c86/intro.htm , wonder
if I still have a copy on 8-inch floppies somewhere.
On Thu, 2024-03-07 at 17:24 -0700, Marc Rochkind wrote:
> I got my first computer in 1981, when I was still at Bell Labs. A
> Zenith, as I recall, running CP/M 80. There was a C-like compiler,
> but it was a subset. I think that computer had a z80 chip, so it
> wasn't an x86.
>
> Then I got an IBM PC in 1982, with an 8088 (16-bit word, 8-bit bus),
> and I'm pretty sure the first real C compiler was Lattice C.
> Microsoft picked it up and called it Microsoft C. Then, maybe a
> couple of years later, they came out with their own C compiler,
> written in-house, I think. (As I recall, I got my Lattice C compiler,
> which was very expensive, for free for writing a review for BYTE
> Magazine, but I can't find the review in my office or online, so
> maybe I'm imagining that. Or maybe I never finished the review or
> they didn't print it.)
>
> I had an early Macintosh, too, and used Lightspeed C. I think it was
> essentially complete C. It was a whole IDE, incredibly fast, and I
> used it for commercial applications for the Mac. I continued to use
> that until Apple bought Next and revised their product line to use
> NextStep. Then I used what Apple had, but it was Objective-C (blend
> of Smalltalk and C) which is what you wrote NextStep apps in. I think
> we used Objective-C for Mac work until the early 1990s, when I
> stopped writing native Mac apps.
>
> Lots of missing details here, I'm sure.
>
> The August 1983 issue of BYTE Magazine was all about C, and has three
> articles reviewing C compilers for CP/M 86, the IBM PC, and CP/M 80.
> There's also an article called "The C Language and Models for Systems
> Programming" by two guys who know about that stuff, Stephen C.
> Johnson and Brian W. Kernighan. Here's a link to the
> issue: https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-08
>
> Marc
>
> On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 4:45 PM Tom Lyon <pugs78@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I know of Plauger as a Kernighan co-author, so I did a search on
> > AbeBooks and found - a lot of science fiction! Must investigate.
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 3:27 PM Luther Johnson
> > <luther.johnson@makerlisp.com> wrote:
> > > Oops, misspelled Mr. Plauger's name, pardon me, that's "P.J.
> > > Plauger".
> > >
> > > On 03/07/2024 04:24 PM, Luther Johnson wrote:
> > > > I don't have any personal tales, but I remember that P.J.
> > > Plaugher's
> > > > company, "Whitesmiths", C compiler was an early, and
> > > influential,
> > > > non-AT&T C compiler.
> > > >
> > > > On 03/07/2024 04:14 PM, Tom Lyon wrote:
> > > >> For no good reason, I've been wondering about the early
> > > history of C
> > > >> compilers that were not derived from Ritchie, Johnson, and
> > > Snyder at
> > > >> Bell. Especially for x86. Anyone have tales?
> > > >> Were any of those compilers ever used to port UNIX?
> > > >
> > >
>
>
> --
> My new email address is mrochkind@gmail.com
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2024-03-08 1:27 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 60+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-03-07 23:14 [TUHS] " Tom Lyon
2024-03-07 23:24 ` [TUHS] " Warner Losh
2024-03-07 23:39 ` Dave Horsfall
2024-03-07 23:49 ` Larry McVoy
2024-03-07 23:56 ` Luther Johnson
2024-03-08 14:03 ` John Foust via TUHS
2024-03-07 23:59 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2024-03-08 0:08 ` Rich Salz
2024-03-08 0:30 ` Warner Losh
2024-03-08 0:57 ` Rob Pike
2024-03-08 1:08 ` Bakul Shah via TUHS
2024-03-08 1:10 ` Rob Pike
2024-03-08 1:12 ` Rob Pike
2024-03-08 1:22 ` Bakul Shah via TUHS
2024-03-08 9:33 ` arnold
2024-03-08 9:45 ` Wesley Parish
2024-03-08 13:06 ` Luther Johnson
2024-03-08 18:33 ` William H. Mitchell
2024-03-10 3:14 ` Adam Thornton
2024-03-11 22:21 ` Phil Budne
2024-03-07 23:52 ` Warner Losh
2024-03-08 0:15 ` Charles H Sauer (he/him)
2024-03-08 0:30 ` Marc Rochkind
2024-03-08 0:54 ` Heinz Lycklama
2024-03-08 1:48 ` segaloco via TUHS
2024-03-08 2:12 ` Tom Lyon
2024-03-08 2:13 ` Lawrence Stewart
2024-03-08 3:15 ` Jonathan Gray
2024-03-07 23:24 ` Luther Johnson
2024-03-07 23:27 ` Luther Johnson
2024-03-07 23:44 ` Tom Lyon
2024-03-08 0:24 ` Marc Rochkind
2024-03-08 1:27 ` Jeffry R. Abramson [this message]
2024-03-10 2:13 ` Greg A. Woods
2024-03-08 2:26 ` Will Senn
2024-03-08 3:03 ` Peter Yardley
2024-03-08 3:28 ` George Michaelson
2024-03-08 3:58 ` Luther Johnson
2024-03-08 5:53 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2024-03-08 13:42 ` Henry Bent
2024-03-08 14:00 ` arnold
2024-03-08 14:16 ` Warner Losh
2024-03-08 15:44 ` Paul Winalski
2024-03-08 17:18 ` Adam Thornton
2024-03-10 2:31 ` Damian Wildie
2024-03-11 17:12 Paul Ruizendaal
2024-03-11 20:44 ` Marc Rochkind
2024-03-11 22:28 ` Peter Yardley
2024-03-12 0:30 ` ron minnich
2024-03-12 13:31 ` Larry Stewart
2024-03-12 16:41 ` Paul Winalski
2024-03-12 14:55 ` Henry Bent
2024-03-12 17:17 ` Marc Rochkind
2024-03-13 14:37 ` Clem Cole
2024-03-13 15:28 ` Marc Rochkind
2024-03-13 15:33 ` Warner Losh
2024-03-13 15:53 ` Clem Cole
2024-03-12 15:42 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2024-03-12 23:08 Steve Simon
[not found] <aee297f1-2f6a-4620-87f7-f1672ae03b61@osta.com>
2024-03-15 3:34 ` Heinz Lycklama
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