[TUHS] pcc in 8th edition

arnold at skeeve.com arnold at skeeve.com
Mon Apr 26 03:32:37 AEST 2021


And maybe give to Warren too? :-)

Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:

> yes  i'll mail under separate cover a scan
>>
> On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 11:47 AM Paul Ruizendaal <pnr at planet.nl> wrote:
>
> > By now found some more clues, in particular this link:
> > http://computer-programming-forum.com/47-c-language/fab825b2dce1aa59.htm
> >
> > Apparently I am talking about PCC and PCC2 in the below question.
> >
> > The first post mentions 4 papers. They can be found online, apart from the
> > USENIX one:
> > "Four Generations of Portable C Compiler" by D.M. Kristol (1986 Summer
> > USENIX Conference Proceedings)
> >
> > Anybody have that?
> >
> > The second post mentions official documentation:
> >
> > "In porting QCC, a useful text is the "Portable C Compiler -
> > Version 2 (PCC2) Internals".  It includes documentation of
> > stin file formats, PCC2 tree forms, debugging flags, and
> > compiler #defines.  The manual is expensive so it's worth it
> > most if you buy it before you figure it all out doing a
> > port.  Since the manual is based on PCC2 (and hasn't been
> > updated), it's a good starting point, but doesn't have the
> > latest information.”
> >
> > Anybody have that? (It is not on bitsavers)
> >
> > Paul
> >
> > > On 25 Apr 2021, at 14:49, arnold at skeeve.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Not an answer to your questions, but you may want to take a look
> > > at the PCC Revived project.  It lives in CVS, but I have a git mirror at
> > > git://github.com/arnoldrobbins/pcc-revived
> > >
> > > HTH,
> > >
> > > Arnold
> > >
> > > Paul Ruizendaal <pnr at planet.nl> wrote:
> > >
> > >> For clarity and ease of reference:
> > >>
> > >> - The “Tour of paper” is for instance here:
> > http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.48.3512 <
> > http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.48.3512>
> > >>
> > >> - A machine description for the VAX that matches with that paper is for
> > instance in the SysIII source:
> > https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=SysIII/usr/src/cmd/cc/vax/pcc/table.c
> > <
> > https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=SysIII/usr/src/cmd/cc/vax/pcc/table.c
> > >
> > >>
> > >> - The new style description in 8th edition is here:
> > https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V8/usr/src/cmd/ccom/vax/stin <
> > https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V8/usr/src/cmd/ccom/vax/stin>
> > >>
> > >> - The program that translates the “stin” file to a “table.c” file is
> > here:
> > https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V8/usr/src/cmd/ccom/common/sty.y
> > <
> > https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V8/usr/src/cmd/ccom/common/sty.y
> > >
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> ====
> > >>
> > >> Sometimes one thing leads to another.
> > >>
> > >> Following the recent mention of some retro-brew 68K single board
> > systems, I decided to build a CB030 board (in progress). I figure it is a
> > rough proxy for a 1980 VAX and would allow for some experimentation with
> > the 32V / SysIII / 8th edition code.
> > >>
> > >> My first thought was to use the M68K compiler that is included with the
> > Blit sources (see THUS Archive for this), as I had used that before to
> > explore some of the Blit source. That compiler is LP32, not ILP32 - which
> > may be a source of trouble. Just changing the SZINT parameter yielded some
> > issues, so I started looking at the PCC source.
> > >>
> > >> This source does not have a “table.c” in the well known format as
> > described in the “A tour of the portable C compiler” paper. Instead it uses
> > a file “stin” which appears to be in a more compact format and is
> > translated into a “table.c” file by a new pre-processor ("sty.y”). Then
> > looking at the VAX compilers for 8th and 10th edition, these too use this
> > “stin” file.
> > >>
> > >> All the other m68K compilers (based on pcc) that I found appear to
> > derive from the V7/32V/SysIII lineage, not from the 8th edition lineage.
> > >>
> > >> A quick google did not yield much background or documentation on the
> > STY format.
> > >>
> > >> Anybody on this list that can shed some light on the history of the STY
> > table and on how to use it? Any surviving reports or memos that would be
> > useful?
> > >>
> > >> Many thanks in advance
> > >>
> > >> Paul
> > >>
> >
> >


More information about the TUHS mailing list