[TUHS] origins of void* -- Apology!

[Don Hopkins]

> The PDP-10 had arbitrarily sized byte pointers! Did anybody ever implement a C compiler on that hardware?
> 
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3153141/defining-a-byte-in-c <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3153141/defining-a-byte-in-c>
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36-bit <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36-bit>
> 
> As DIGEX teased the VAX weenies at DECUS:
> 
> “If you’re not playing with 36 bits, you’re not playing with a full DEC!"
> 
> -Don
> 


Re: PDP-10 backend for gcc
https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2000-09/msg00073.html <https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2000-09/msg00073.html>

ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/dec20/assembler-guide.txt <ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/dec20/assembler-guide.txt>
2.12. Byte Instructions

In the PDP-10 a "byte" is some number of contiguous bits within one word.  A
byte pointer is a word that describes the byte.  There are three parts to the
description of a byte: the word (i.e., address) in which the byte occurs, the
position of the byte within the word, and the length of the byte.

A byte pointer has the following format:


   Bit     000000 000011 1 1 1111 112222222222333333
 Position  012345 678901 2 3 4567 890123456789012345
           _________________________________________
          |      |      | | |    |                  |
          | POS  | SIZE |U|I| X  |        Y         |
          |______|______|_|_|____|__________________|

   - POS is the byte position: the number of bits remaining in the word
     to the right of the byte.

   - SIZE is the byte size in bits.

   - The U field is reserved for future use and must be zero.

   - I, X, and Y are the same as in an instruction.

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