[TUHS] Command name of the B compiler; One letter command names

[TUHS] Command name of the B compiler; One letter command names

[markus schnalke]

Hoi,

I'm wondering what the name of the B compiler was.

Doug's ``Unix Reader'' lists:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
+ + + . . . . . . b        compile b program
. . . . . + + + + bc       arbitrary-precision arithmetic language


Via Wikipedia I found a scan of the ``Users' Reference to B'',
a technical memorandum by Ken, dated 1972-01-07 (which is between
the releases of the 1st and 2nd Edition).

	https://web.archive.org/web/20150317033259/https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/kbman.pdf

There on page 25:

	10.0 Usage

	Currently on UNIX, there is no B command.   The B compiler phases
	must be executed piecemeal.   The first phase turns a B source
	program into an intermediate language.
	   /etc/bc source interm
	The next phase turns the intermediate language into assembler
	source, at which time the intermediate language can be removed.
	   /etc/ba interm   asource
	   rm interm
	The next phase assembles the assembler source into the object
	tile a.out.   After this the a.out file can be renamed and the
	assembler source file can be removed.
	   as asource
	   mv a.out object
	   rm asource
	The last phase loads the various object files with the necessary
	libraries in the desired order.
	   ld object /etc/brtl -lb /etc/bilib /etc/brt2
	Now a.out contains the completely bound and loaded program and
	can  be executed.
	   a.out
	A canned sequence of shell commands exists invoked as follows:
	   sh /usr/b/rc x
	It will compile, convert, assemble and load the file x.b into the
	executable file a.out.

It lists /etc/bc, as a command to convert into the intermediate
language, and /etc/ba, to convert the intermediate language into
assembler source, but lists no `b' command. The wrapper script is
/usr/b/rc.

Can someone clarify?



I came to this question because I was looking for one letter
commands. I always thought them to be a reserved namespace for the
user ... Any background on that topic is appreciated as well. ;-)


meillo

Re: [TUHS] Command name of the B compiler; One letter command names

[John Cowan]

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On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 2:12 AM markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> wrote:

> Hoi,
>

coi :-)

>         Currently on UNIX, there is no B command.


A script named "B" (note capital letter) was written at some point that
performed the explicit steps shown in the B manual.  This was evidently
renamed to "b" at some point.  "All is in flux."

I came to this question because I was looking for one letter
> commands. I always thought them to be a reserved namespace for the
> user ...
>

By no means, at least not by now.  "x" is the name of the raw X11 binary,
and "w" is a variant of "who" that displays the idle time (similar to
"finger") and the last command executed. The J and K language interpreters
from the APL dharma line (and consequently oriented toward terseness) are
executed as "J" and "k" respectively.



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan@ccil.org
There is / One art / No more / No less
To do / All things / With art- / -Lessness          --Piet Hein

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Re: [TUHS] Command name of the B compiler; One letter command names

[Richard Salz]

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And of course there's the "B" command to open file(s) in an existing sam
instance.

I am glad there aren't many, since that leaves them for users; I have
several single-letter commands:
; grep 'fn . {' .rcrc | wc -l
10

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