[TUHS] Re: Ken Thomson's email address?

[TUHS] Re: Ken Thomson's email address?

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Clem Cole

    > The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral state some time in the process
    > of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began to
    > add features he needed

See:

  The Development of the C Language
  https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html

for detail on the evolution.

	Noel

[TUHS] Re: Ken Thomson's email address?

[Clem Cole]

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Thanks, Noel. I should have pointed to that paper also. I have always
considered the demarcation point when structures were added, but I darned
if I knew at what date or time Dennis chose to rename it. Clearly, one day
(night, more likely), he realized it nb was really not B anymore and needed
a new name.
ᐧ

On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:

>     > From: Clem Cole
>
>     > The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral state some time in the process
>     > of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began
> to
>     > add features he needed
>
> See:
>
>   The Development of the C Language
>   https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html
>
> for detail on the evolution.
>
>         Noel
>

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[TUHS] Re: Ken Thomson's email address?

[segaloco via TUHS]

On Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 7:23 AM, Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Noel. I should have pointed to that paper also. I have always considered the demarcation point when structures were added, but I darned if I knew at what date or time Dennis chose to rename it. Clearly, one day (night, more likely), he realized it nb was really not B anymore and needed a new name.
> ᐧ
> 
> On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
> 
> > > From: Clem Cole
> > 
> > > The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral state some time in the process
> > > of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began to
> > > add features he needed
> > 
> > See:
> > 
> > The Development of the C Language
> > https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html
> > 
> > for detail on the evolution.
> > 
> > Noel

For the record another source of old C compiler code would be in
the s1/s2 tapes here:  https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/1972_stuff/

I'm not in a place to dig into them right now but one of the two
tapes is a V2 root filesystem backup, the C compiler should be
in a couple stages in /lib.  Granted, its binary, but with
enough disassembly work and comparison with other sources, it
may be possible to recreate a compelling facsimile of whatever
revision that represents.

Otherwise as others have stated, the historic C compiler
situation has been quite well plundered by this and other
groups, supplemented of course by Dennis Ritchie's foresight to
keep and provide so many artifacts and anecdotes.

- Matt G.

[TUHS] Re: Ken Thomson's email address?

[Marc Rochkind]

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Seems that the subject line of this thread should be changed.

Marc

On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 1:00 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:

> On Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 7:23 AM, Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
>
> > Thanks, Noel. I should have pointed to that paper also. I have always
> considered the demarcation point when structures were added, but I darned
> if I knew at what date or time Dennis chose to rename it. Clearly, one day
> (night, more likely), he realized it nb was really not B anymore and needed
> a new name.
> > ᐧ
> >
> > On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > > > From: Clem Cole
> > >
> > > > The first "C" compiler wa an ephemeral state some time in the process
> > > > of its evolution. Dennis started with his B implementation and began
> to
> > > > add features he needed
> > >
> > > See:
> > >
> > > The Development of the C Language
> > > https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/chist.html
> > >
> > > for detail on the evolution.
> > >
> > > Noel
>
> For the record another source of old C compiler code would be in
> the s1/s2 tapes here:
> https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/1972_stuff/
>
> I'm not in a place to dig into them right now but one of the two
> tapes is a V2 root filesystem backup, the C compiler should be
> in a couple stages in /lib.  Granted, its binary, but with
> enough disassembly work and comparison with other sources, it
> may be possible to recreate a compelling facsimile of whatever
> revision that represents.
>
> Otherwise as others have stated, the historic C compiler
> situation has been quite well plundered by this and other
> groups, supplemented of course by Dennis Ritchie's foresight to
> keep and provide so many artifacts and anecdotes.
>
> - Matt G.
>


-- 
Subscribe to my Photo-of-the-Week emails at my website mrochkind.com.

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[TUHS] Re: Old C compilers (was: Ken Thomson's email address?)

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

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On Thursday,  8 May 2025 at 13:38:19 -0600, Marc Rochkind wrote:
> On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 1:00 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> For the record another source of old C compiler code would be in
>> the s1/s2 tapes here:
>> https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/1972_stuff/
>>
>> I'm not in a place to dig into them right now but one of the two
>> tapes is a V2 root filesystem backup, the C compiler should be
>> in a couple stages in /lib.  Granted, its binary, but with
>> enough disassembly work and comparison with other sources, it
>> may be possible to recreate a compelling facsimile of whatever
>> revision that represents.

Years ago (February 2000) I got the sources of a 1972 C compiler that
I was able to compile and run on FreeBSD.  The tarball should be
called last1120c.tar.gz .  I assume that I got it from the TUHS
archive, but if you can't find it, let me know.

> Seems that the subject line of this thread should be changed.

Agreed.  You, too, could have done this.

Greg
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