[TUHS] Software written in B
Angelo Papenhoff
aap at papnet.eu
Thu Jun 8 01:05:27 AEST 2023
Sebastien,
I'm not aware of any old UNIX B code beyond the examples from the
documentation and one or two short programs for the PDP-7 (this is older
B).
As Lars already mentioned, some people have written their own B
compilers, even in B.
My compiler (https://github.com/aap/b) generates the same threaded
code that ran on the PDP-11 and I implemented it on a few platforms,
(pdp-11, amd64, mips32, riscv64), notably it runs on UNIX v6.
Robert Swierczek has written a B compiler that is compatible with the
PDP-7 runtime:
https://github.com/DoctorWkt/pdp7-unix/blob/master/src/other/b.b
With B you pretty much have to write your own code unfortunately. Would
be great if some bigger programs (like the compiler and yacc) were found.
best,
Angelo
On 07/06/23, Sebastien F4GRX wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> this is my first post on this list.
>
>
> After looking at the archives for this mailing list, I have seen that
> the B language has been discussed several times already.
>
> After viewing Ken Thompson's interview by Brian Kernighan at VCF East
> 2019, I became interested in the B language, as it seemed full-featured
> for system programming, close to C, and simple enough to write a parser
> for it without a code generation tool.
>
> So for fun and self-education, I am now writing a (or yet another) B
> compiler, in C, after reading Jack Crenshaw's "Let's build a compiler"
> documentation ( https://compilers.iecc.com/crenshaw/ )
>
> Here it is: https://git.sr.ht/~f4grx/bpars
>
> It is now starting to generate code for the 68hc11 8-bit platform. It
> can also generate C code.
>
>
> I have written some test programs, found some B examples, but I thought
> it would be great to use my compiler with actual B software.
>
> Of course, B was a "transition" language, that did not have a continued
> use as soon as it evolved into C. so if any software remains, it will be
> quite hard to find.
>
> And here is my question, is any of you aware of original B source code
> archives? or are in touch with people that would know?
>
>
> In particular, I read on this document written by Dennis Ritchie:
> https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html
>
> > After the TMG version of B was working, Thompson rewrote B in itself
> (a bootstrapping step).
>
>
> I have also read that the YACC tool was initially written in B.
>
> There might be other historical B sources that I am not aware of.
>
>
> Do you know if any of this code has survived to this day? Where could I
> find more information about this?
>
>
> Thank you very much,
>
> Sebastien Lorquet (F4GRX)
>
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