Clem Cole scripsit:

> ​To be fair UNIX was the naming sinner here IMO.  Unix's ld command is the
> "link editor", 

I thought "ld" stood for Link eDitor.  :-)

> I never asked Dennis or Ken why those names were not used.

FWIW, DEC transitioned from "loader" to "link editor".  On OS/8 there
were four linkers, one for each compiler:  ABSLDR, LOAD, LOADER,
and LINK.  LINK was for the macro assembler, the last one published.
I don't remember the story on the various PDP-11 DEC OSes; by VMS days
it was exclusively LINK.  The ABSLDR actually did loading rather than
linking (it was "absolute" in the sense that it did no relocation, so
if parts of your program overwrote other parts, that was your problem).
When it terminated, the executable program was in core (the ABSLDR's
last act was to arrange for the executable to overwrite it) where you
could save it or start it up as you were so minded.

-- 
"Well, I'm back."  --Sam        John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>