[TUHS] Any UNIX With No C In Userland?

[Larry McVoy]

On Sat, Mar 01, 2025 at 02:01:11PM -0800, Larry McVoy wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 01, 2025 at 01:51:29PM -0800, Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM) wrote:
> > segaloco via TUHS writes:
> > > Given that anything that obeys the ABI and has assembler entries to the ker=
> > > nel
> > > can request services, it seems to me it would be possible to stand up a
> > > user-land without C being present.  Have any UNIXen ever done this after th=
> > > e
> > > advent of C?
> > 
> > SunOS 4.0 or 4.1 was when the Sun geniouses unbundled the C compiler
> > and made it a $$$ add on.  That move single-handedly made GCC the
> > reference compiler moving forward.
> 
> I think that OP was asking about a userland compiled with Pascal or Go
> or Rust, anything other than C.  
> 
> I don't think it was a question of commercial C or Gcc (I agree that it
> was a bonehead move on Sun's part).

The funny thing was that somewhere around then Sun Labs was paying Micheal
Tiemann to make g++ work.  With a deal that let him retain the rights to
the code.  I never understood that, one hand wants to charge for cc and
the other hand is paying for free g++?  The ways of Sun could be strange.