From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id e92258b0 for ; Mon, 11 Nov 2019 21:25:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id F17869BB0A; Tue, 12 Nov 2019 07:25:51 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B56A793D33; Tue, 12 Nov 2019 07:25:34 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 6B6EC93D33; Tue, 12 Nov 2019 07:25:32 +1000 (AEST) X-Greylist: delayed 901 seconds by postgrey-1.36 at minnie.tuhs.org; Tue, 12 Nov 2019 07:25:31 AEST Received: from mxout1.netvision.net.il (mxout1.netvision.net.il [194.90.9.20]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7FC9D93D2B for ; Tue, 12 Nov 2019 07:25:31 +1000 (AEST) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Received: from skeeve.com ([89.139.124.158]) by mxout1.netvision.net.il (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 8.0.2.1.20180104 64bit (built Jan 4 2018)) with ESMTPSA id <0Q0T00HAVPHGHFT3@mxout1.netvision.net.il> for tuhs@tuhs.org; Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:10:28 +0200 (IST) Received: from skeeve.com (skeeve.com [127.0.0.1]) by skeeve.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Debian-3) with ESMTP id xABLAR88004397; Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:10:27 +0200 Received: (from arnold@localhost) by skeeve.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id xABLAQfW004396; Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:10:26 +0200 From: Arnold Robbins Message-id: <201911112110.xABLAQfW004396@skeeve.com> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:10:26 +0200 To: tuhs@tuhs.org User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 6/20/10 Subject: [TUHS] History of m6? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Hi. Doug McIlroy is probably the best person to answer this. Looking at the V3 and V4 manuals, there is a reference to the m6 macro processor. The man page thereof refers to A. D. Hall, The M6 Macroprocessor, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1969 1. Is this memo available, even in hardcopy that could be scanned? 2. What's the history of m6, was it written in assembler? C? 3. When and why was it replaced with m4 (written by DMR IIRC)? More generally, what's the history of m6 prior to Unix? IIRC, the macro processor in Software Tools was inspired by m4, and in particular its immediate evaluation of its arguments during definition. I guess I'll also ask, how widespread was the use of macro processors in high level languages? They were big for assembler, and PL/1 had a macro language, but I don't know of any other contemporary languages that had them. Were the general purpose macro processors used a lot? E.g. with Fortran or Cobol or ... I'm just curious. :-) Thanks, Arnold