Re: [TUHS] Non-US Unix Activities

At AT&T, the evolution from B to C was quite smooth, as was the evolution of C itself.   Most B programs were converted to "nb" (the first C incarnation) by hacking on the character strings and putting in some types where needed.   It wasn't a big deal.  So I'd be surprised if there were substantial B programs that survived. One lesson learned that I've never forgotten is how smooth it is to evolve a language using the following process: * Announce that the change is coming and explain why * Change the compiler to accept both the old and new syntax * Produce a simple warning message when the old syntax was used, but make it still work * Produce a more complicated, verbose message, but still make it work * Produce a message that says "After date xxxx, the old stuff won't work any more" * On the date, change the warning to fatal, but keep recognizing the old syntax and emit "Error: You used the old xxx, change to the new one" * Eventually, stop recognizing the old syntax and remove the message. Dennis was a master at this strategy, so things like the otherwise painful evolution of changing =+ to += went well. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Swierczek" &lt;rmswierczek(a)gmail.com&gt; To:"Toby Thain" &lt;toby(a)telegraphics.com.au&gt; Cc:<tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org> Sent:Fri, 7 Apr 2017 17:51:03 -0400 Subject:Re: [TUHS] Non-US Unix Activities significantly more seems like anyway? (so that feed Fully agree! If there is anything I can do to help get that online (in whatever form) let me know. Are there any other surviving examples of B code from that era in this ballpark of complexity?