From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: vasco@icpnet.pl (Andrzej Popielewicz) Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:51:38 +0100 Subject: [TUHS] /usr/bin/bs on HPUX? In-Reply-To: <20081210180826.GE1746@mercury.ccil.org> References: <75D36093-D9D0-48EF-ACAC-DF739E0236B6@mac.com> <20081210180826.GE1746@mercury.ccil.org> Message-ID: <49672C3A.5020307@icpnet.pl> John Cowan pisze: > Lord Doomicus scripsit: > > >> I was poking around an HP UX system at work today, and noticed a >> command I've never noticed before ... /usr/bin/bs. >> >> I'm sure it's been there for a long time, even though I've been an >> HPUX admin for more than a decade, sometimes I'm just blind ... but >> anyway .... >> >> I tried to search on google ... it looks like only HPUX, AIX, and >> Maybe AU/X has it. Seems to be some kind of pseudo BASIC like >> interpreter. >> > > That's just what it is. Here are the things I now know about it. > > 0. The string "bs" gets an awful lot of false Google hits, no matter > how hard you try. > > 1. "bs" was written at AT&T, probably at the Labs, at some time between > the release of 32V and System III. It was part of both System III and > at least some System V releases. > > 2. It was probably meant as a replacement for "bas", which was a more > conventional GW-Basic-style interpreter written in PDP-11 assembly > language. (32V still had the PDP-11 source, which of course didn't work.) > > 3. At one time System III source code was available on the net, > including bs.c and bs.1, but apparently it no longer is. I downloaded > it then but don't have it any more. > > 4. I was able to compile it under several Unixes, but it wouldn't run: > I think there must have been some kind of dependency on memory layout, > but never found out exactly what. > > 5. I remember from the man page that it had regular expressions, and > two commands "compile" and "execute" that switched modes to storing > expressions and executing them on the spot, respectively. That eliminated > the need for line numbers. > > 6. It was apparently never part of Solaris. > > 7. It was never part of any BSD release, on which "bs" was the battleships > game. > > 8. I can't find the man page on line anywhere either. > > 9. The man page said it had some Snobol features. I think that meant > the ability to return failure -- I vaguely remember an "freturn" command. > > 10. 99 Bottles of Beer has a sample bs program at > http://www2.99-bottles-of-beer.net/language-bs-103.html . > > 11. If someone sends me a man page, I'll consider reimplementing it as > Open Source. > > You will find public domain basic interpreter in Coherent archive mwcbbs at lynx gopher://rachael.dyndns.org/1 It is for pdp11, vax, coherent , motorola etc. Andrzej