From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: bqt@update.uu.se (Johnny Billquist) Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 14:05:59 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [pups] Bringing up the fist C compiler In-Reply-To: <15735.15786.542175.385620@cley.com> Message-ID: On Thu, 5 Sep 2002, Tim Bradshaw wrote: > * Johnny Billquist wrote: > > > How? It was written, of course. In assembler. By that time, you already > > had the assembler, an editor, and other commonly used system programs, so > > it's just a case of the normal development cycle. > > Is this known or is it deduction? [...] Ah. Ok, now I understand what you're asking for. You want to know what the first C was written in, and what that compiler/assembler was written in/on, and so on... No, I'm just deducting. Since the reference posted said that TMG was the first higher level language implemented, it follows that it must have been written in a low level language, namely assembler. Admittedly, the PDP-7 TMG *could* have been written in some high level language on some other machine using some tool that made a PDP-7 executable, so your guess is as good as mine. But even though I cannot account for all steps, I can guarantee that at the end of the chain, you *will* find assembler. I guess my MACRO-11 implementation of C isn't good enough. :-) (Well, it ain't mine, it's the normal DECUS C, but I'm hacked some at it.) Johnny Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at update.uu.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol