* [TUHS] 8bc -- a B compiler for the PDP-8 @ 2019-09-20 22:53 Robert Clausecker 2019-09-23 17:25 ` Clem Cole 0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread From: Robert Clausecker @ 2019-09-20 22:53 UTC (permalink / raw) To: tuhs Greetings! As a project for our university's seminar on the PDP-8 I wrote a compiler for the B language targeting it. It's a bit rough around the edges and the runtime code needs some work (division and remainder are missing), but it does compile B code correctly, generating acceptable code (for my taste, though the function call sequence could be better). I hope some of you enjoy this compiler for an important historical language for an important historical computer (makes me wonder why the two weren't married before). https://github.com/fuzxxl/8bc Yours, Robert Clausecker -- () ascii ribbon campaign - for an 8-bit clean world /\ - against html email - against proprietary attachments ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] 8bc -- a B compiler for the PDP-8 2019-09-20 22:53 [TUHS] 8bc -- a B compiler for the PDP-8 Robert Clausecker @ 2019-09-23 17:25 ` Clem Cole 2019-09-23 18:01 ` Henry Bent 0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread From: Clem Cole @ 2019-09-23 17:25 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Robert Clausecker; +Cc: TUHS main list [-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2300 bytes --] below... On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 7:08 PM Robert Clausecker <fuz@fuz.su> wrote: > Greetings! > > As a project for our university's seminar on the PDP-8 I wrote a > compiler for the B language targeting it. Very cool. > It's a bit rough around > the edges and the runtime code needs some work (division and > remainder are missing), but it does compile B code correctly, > generating acceptable code (for my taste, though the function call > sequence could be better). > A suggestion, Load TSS/8 on to your simh system with its Algol compiler and look at how it generated code. I would suspect you can use Algol's calling conventions and probably some of its runtime. Google is your friend. I had it running a while back, but do not have it active at the moment - the key is all the pieces should be findable in the wild,. > > I hope some of you enjoy this compiler for an important historical > language for an important historical computer (makes me wonder why > the two weren't married before). > Might have been, although when Ken created B for the PDP-7, BCPL was his model and there were already implementations of BCPL around for a number of processors. I would not be surprised if there was a BCPL/8. I would check in the DECUS library, much of which I think can be found online these days ??bit savers??. FWIW: IIRC, the Grenoble Algol, a DEC Fortran and DEC Focal (plus assembler) were the languages I remember on TSS/8. I came late and short lived to the PDP-8 world and did not do much with it. So there could have been/unlikely were more. The 8 Gordon Bell and his students had used to write it, was in the EE Dept at the time and most unused because we hard started to collect PDP-11s. But I do have a fondness for the TSS/8, because on a bet, one summer weekend in about 1976 I think, a couple of us hacked on it to make it swap to paper tape - you got about 2-4K of storage max (the read is destructive and much more than that the tape ripped/got tangled). But it worked enough we got the beers and pizza and we claimed success for proving it could be done. Sadly I have long ago lost that code for that hack. The PDP-8 we used was a very early 8 that CMU had and at one point was in donated to Boston Computer Museum/was on display until the museum closed. [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 3796 bytes --] ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] 8bc -- a B compiler for the PDP-8 2019-09-23 17:25 ` Clem Cole @ 2019-09-23 18:01 ` Henry Bent 0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread From: Henry Bent @ 2019-09-23 18:01 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Clem Cole; +Cc: TUHS main list [-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1442 bytes --] On Mon, 23 Sep 2019 at 13:27, Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote: > below... > > On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 7:08 PM Robert Clausecker <fuz@fuz.su> wrote: > >> It's a bit rough around >> the edges and the runtime code needs some work (division and >> remainder are missing), but it does compile B code correctly, >> generating acceptable code (for my taste, though the function call >> sequence could be better). >> > A suggestion, Load TSS/8 on to your simh system with its Algol compiler > and look at how it generated code. I would suspect you can use Algol's > calling conventions and probably some of its runtime. Google is your > friend. I had it running a while back, but do not have it active at the > moment - the key is all the pieces should be findable in the wild,. > > >> >> I hope some of you enjoy this compiler for an important historical >> language for an important historical computer (makes me wonder why >> the two weren't married before). >> > Might have been, although when Ken created B for the PDP-7, BCPL was his > model and there were already implementations of BCPL around for a number of > processors. I would not be surprised if there was a BCPL/8. I would check > in the DECUS library, much of which I think can be found online these days > ??bit savers??. > I checked here: http://so-much-stuff.com/pdp8/software/decus.php but did not immediately see anything BCPL related. 8-330 is TSS/8 ALGOL. -Henry [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2568 bytes --] ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
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