31 May
2024
31 May
'24
6 p.m.
I’m further looking into BCPL / B / C family compilers on 16-bit mini-computers prior to
1979.
Lot’s of interesting stuff. BCPL was extended with structures at least twice and plenty
struggle with (un)scaled pointers. It seems that the Nova was a much easier target than
the PDP-11, with a simpler code generator sufficing to generate quality code. I’ll report
more fully when I’m further along with my review.
On May 8, 2024, at 5:51 PM, Clem Cole
<clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
IIRC, Mike Malcom and the team built a true B compiler so they could develop Thoth. As
the 11/40 was one of the original Thoth target systems, I would have expected that to
exist, but I have never used it.
Yes, they did. I’m working through the various papers on Thoth and the Eh / Zed compilers
(essentially B with tweaks). I’ve requested pdf’s of two theses that are only on
micro-fiche from the Uni of Waterloo library, hopefully this is possible. The original
target machines were Honeywell 6060, DG Nova, Microdata 1600/30 and TI-990. The latter is
close enough to a PDP-11. This compiler is from 1976.
I’ve browsed around for surviving Thoth source code, but it would seem to be lost. Does
anyone know of surviving Thoth bits?