From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 12976 invoked from network); 22 May 2020 23:34:18 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 22 May 2020 23:34:18 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 1623F9C927; Sat, 23 May 2020 09:34:13 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 891A99C606; Sat, 23 May 2020 09:33:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id C547F9C606; Sat, 23 May 2020 09:33:34 +1000 (AEST) Received: from kvm5.telegraphics.com.au (kvm5.telegraphics.com.au [98.124.60.144]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 30E859C187 for ; Sat, 23 May 2020 09:33:34 +1000 (AEST) Received: from [10.210.249.17] (unknown [10.210.249.17]) by kvm5.telegraphics.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 94EE729AFA for ; Fri, 22 May 2020 19:33:32 -0400 (EDT) To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org References: From: Toby Thain Autocrypt: addr=toby@telegraphics.com.au; prefer-encrypt=mutual; keydata= mQENBFVqRckBCACdUBQ565VYFZgKu+JjAeV2T/QIITeO+kPhViKuWooJADKB0Xra+AUSilML bmLYIPE1ZAWU3b12q0IxofU9wLe2AyQ/KIrUN891Fydhdsg6xVXRITrDobHUTyMQ8KlXMXO4 zsUq5TtlNkNbHOw6WCyoRpWUYJ1otpWVnjKLJFsvbSgtdjn2fZOLHL00wjZL+oYsFcx7aiYg bRQ7oO7nnDz7NyM/gsGWJazFLpZs1tuJSjR/ruYHCqyCa3VX1FaquVrHPkOWg0D5npDaSCWX 3OgbrarP75l43DLBuROuSJkZvLs41jrkhFeFSik2nZUwiSZWzsWAUMGMGCbGU2LljArzABEB AAG0L1RvYnkgVGhhaW4gKE1hYyBQcm8pIDx0b2J5QHRlbGVncmFwaGljcy5jb20uYXU+iQFP BBMBAgA5AhsDBgsJCAcDAgYVCAIJCgsEFgIDAQIeAQIXgBYhBAVB4kPONsxSK13M05k7tV74 aS2yBQJb7srkAAoJEJk7tV74aS2yhZ0IAIB0xPUNyDPf0euMXBV6c0Of0DF7Xvg/z3322jWP sHSyIcv2+Th4cByNjUC/IdMmwLWLKGclN/t8arDLl2UaT3FgPUCZLHP+SYgtkdyw4iXhByD4 wl8E23IU08tq9MouO9IQ9PJs0szkBS/HorAaK1dHt01HyuF72Batb6RTtvNYz4LIr6ECwgAS geRSt1olUds3pXPgwZYD/l4NAJOwDuKTtNGo0867zUn82703wWnLC4BupvcMs31jI4GJU6Nl wuVEpo3KQbaEJiaddTGkMGwOlSaPaDc6/6bl62X0LmJL9JCDefudqJEe23HjQVrwqZbJ6hZG vgLmjwH8SKAl/xG5AQ0EVWpFyQEIALgVpxkG/EwDLpu3l3qPGzwdoUVh1ciunWc8N7h4n+0y H90BtCjhDR96tOpfCDOpNA9iazOHdSPDaoufEdvbSZCAAFZwOom6xVKMv0SnYB7CPXdVrb7K F9PgJlQ1LKKapCQYsOAaOb3V1nNfz8UvU0o7CUUa6ko/DCCR9+QiqsrPbErS4L4RbU4yuxcb 1rE0g83fiom/ypG/2z+6d0z8HX5oG6PLqpbAJ56a+UtGDMFvpKVkI8au93YMDCyUa8KGgsfc GWpVaxab8YkJOIgpEEaPRa5meo/UFFxfF8SmIoSiHfrMbNx83Vl0FCexuoKhNOOF2A3F+q+D i+5Q7TtkHMkAEQEAAYkBHwQYAQIACQUCVWpFyQIbDAAKCRCZO7Ve+Gktso0VB/0cNfygjw1u k/JE/xIa0D+oD+lYhjIS40v9aazGmwihGjZi29YWw6njh60j8eUu8FSmB2Rl1eLWGTG2TGz9 u3gOHpniymeeFAWPqRUVJRHRSeDxdJaV7Nx3KGysjeTj2IRHA7gU2SHClrWFZ0g5Vy75oOCk 2VeCNC7kN7PemGIlgu4zOqDDX/jUlrUoUAqTaoT4MAQNuG8dyLyE3sfrC4n7qbG1TxUGTXuS LFphJQSDcvn0WAdolwTZ3YT8cwq2KrQDbmESg425J8cdqmaMI5mJgucWf4tmAEMyjde1jRYh oQDyMgQXXY/+QvS5a7dpz4l9UZwz1bXTr32jJ/+UKrHM Message-ID: <5cef3bd0-5dfc-2d4a-cdde-9d7b03dea353@telegraphics.com.au> Date: Fri, 22 May 2020 19:33:32 -0400 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.11; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.7.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] where did "main" come from? 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" On 2020-05-22 5:52 PM, Clem Cole wrote: > It's interesting, I was thinking about this the other day too.   I > remember talking about the 'main program' in Fortran when I was > learning.  I never thought about it when I saw it in C, other than, ok > that's how you pass command line args, which I thought was really > clean.   I remember TOPS and TSS you had to go rummaging around to get > to them.   > > As for your BCPL question, START() was way I learned it.  I think I > first saw it on the 360s or maybe the 1108; but really never did much it > until I saw the first Altos. This chart could lead to some predictable conclusions, don't know if they are correct: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=main+program&year_start=1930&year_end=2008&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmain%20program%3B%2Cc0 > > Clem   > > On Fri, May 22, 2020 at 2:53 PM Lawrence Stewart > wrote: > > C main programs define “main”. > This also seems to be true of B main programs, according to the > Johnson/Kernighan manual > The 1967 Martin Richards BCPL manual doesn’t explain how programs > get started > The 1974 update from Martin Richards says there should be an OS > addendum that explains this. > The 1974 University of Essex BCPL manual says to use START > The 1979 Parc Alto BCPL manual uses Main and I think that must be > unchanged from 1972. > The AMSTRAD BCPL guide from 1986 uses start() > > > So who started “main” and when?  I can’t find an online copy of the > Bell Laboratories BCPL manual (Canaday/Thompson) from 1969 or > anything about how to use BCPL on Multics or CTSS. > > -L >