[TUHS] Re: Documentation for Sys-V basic interpreter

[segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org>]

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Here are raw[1] and nroff-d[2] restorations of the CB-UNIX 2.1 stamped page:

[1] - https://pastebin.com/EAjMyvSn
[2] - https://pastebin.com/Dgh1g5q8

According to a diff with the 3.0 manpage in the tree[3], these are some changes of note from CB 2.1 to PWB 3.0:

- Added ibase, obase
- Added elif and using a single fi to end an if elif else chain
- Added return for returning from function calls
- Added support for tables (arrays based on key-value pairs)
- The plot(11) routine swaps the corners about the y axis
- A bug is removed indicating a limit of 250 lines, 250 variables, and artificial truncation of names to six characters.

Unfortunately the CB 2.1 page on the archive[4] doesn't indicate anything of particular note that wasn't pretty much the same in PWB 3.0.

[3] - https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=SysIII/usr/src/man/man1/bs.1
[4] - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/USDL/CB_Unix/cbunix_man1_01.pdf (Page 32-39)

- Matt G.
------- Original Message -------
On Friday, May 19th, 2023 at 5:31 PM, Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:

> Matt.
>
> Does the CB man page match the PWB 3 version? I may be mixing something up in my memory so I ask because I seem to remember there were some differences between some scripts that came from different places ( We did a lot with graphics in the cad group and when we had tools that came from other places it was often graphics that bit us which is why I think that sticks in my mind). I’ll have to try looking at the version we had at UCB in a bit.
>
> As for doc the only thing I remember was a man page for the tool.
>
> Clem
>
> On Fri, May 19, 2023 at 4:19 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>> The earliest documentation I can spot is the bs(1) man page dated November, 1979 in the CB-UNIX 2.3 Manual (although the page itself is tagged CB-UNIX 2.1.)
>>
>> This appears to be the same lineage as what we see in the commercial PWB releases, however, the earliest backstop I have on that is June, 1980 with 3.0. PWB 1.0 contains no such page, and unfortunately the situation right around 1979 is still a bit fuzzy re: PWB 2.0 and UNIX/TS. That said, the preface to the CB-UNIX 2.3 manual (which is also a 2.1 page from 1979) pays no credit to the UNIX/TS 1.1 nor PWB 2.0 manuals the way the PWB 3.0 preface does, so perhaps bs(1) started in CB?
>>
>> Looking forward, this utility persists up til SVR2, but is gone as of the SVR3 globe-with-UNIX-lines manual series. Curiously, it was also omitted from the 3B20 PWB 4.1 manual, but the 5.0 and subsequent System V 1 and 2 manuals don't have a hardware-exclusivity masthead mark, so this was likely made portable/ported to 3B20 sometime around '81. In any case, none of the man pages in any of these manuals indicate any memoranda or other papers in the SEE ALSO. Doesn't mean one doesn't exist, but points to the likelihood that the manpage is really all you get documentation-wise. Even the BTL versions don't mention any papers.
>>
>> In any case, that's what I could turn up, there is a bs(1) manpage in the following versions:
>>
>> - 1979 - CB-UNIX 2.1
>> - 1980 - PWB 3.0/System III
>> - 1981 - PWB 4.x (Non 3B20)
>> - 1981 - CB-UNIX 2.3 (unmodified from 2.1)
>> - 1982 - PWB 5.0
>> - 1983 - System V
>> - 1984 - System V Release 2
>>
>> Hope that helps. All of these save the 4.x version should be in various places around. I don't remember seeing anything outrageously different between 3.0 and 5.0, so it very well may be that the 4.x manpage could be easily synthesized with a diff, but I don't have a physical page to prove anything.
>>
>> - Matt G.
>> ------- Original Message -------
>>
>> On Friday, May 19th, 2023 at 8:06 AM, KenUnix <ken.unix.guy@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi.
>>>
>>> Was any documentation ever done for the basic interpreter
>>> that was on System-V?
>>>
>>> Things like allowed keywords or special keywords.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Ken
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> WWL 📚 Okey Dokey OK Boss
>
> --
>
> Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual

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