Re: [TUHS] Etymology of bc(1)

There's nothing in the Unix v5 manual about bc and there's no code for it either. If there's an older version I can't find it. I have a version of Unix v6 that has a file called /usr/doc/bc that describes bc at length and it mentions both Lorinda Cherry and Robert Morris. There's even a file called /usr/doc/bca which is titled "Appendix" with even more info. Bob's Calculator seems plausible enough. Mark On 9/11/14, Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > > From: Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> > > > On the *nix systems to which I have access, bc(1) is a standalone > > program on FreeBSD and OSX, but pipes to dc(1) on OpenBSD. I cannot > > check my Penguin box (Ubuntu) > > Dude! Trying to answer questions about the origins of BC by looking at > systems this late is like trying to learn Latin by studying Italian! :-) > > I looked at the Version 6 source, and it's a bunch of YACC code, but it > pulls > the same technique of using a pipe to an instance of DC, viz: > > pipe(p); > if (fork()==0) { > close(1); > dup(p[1]); > close(p[0]); > close(p[1]); > yyinit(argc, argv); > yyparse(); > exit(); > } > close(0); > dup(p[0]); > close(p[0]); > close(p[1]); > execl("/bin/dc", "dc", "-", 0); > > > Noel > _______________________________________________ > TUHS mailing list > TUHS(a)minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs >