16 Dec
2024
16 Dec
'24
5:55 p.m.
Marc Rochkind wrote in
<CAOkr1zWnwM0xQjxyeco0RPOU1w_WRKRfXShOqbJgQg9V=55=bQ(a)mail.gmail.com>:
|On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 6:43 PM Greg A. Woods <woods(a)robohack.ca> wrote:
|> This is more of an aside, but as a long time and ongoing SCCS user I've
|> wondered about the vc(1) command included in the SCCS tool suite.
|>
|> So I was hoping you (or anyone else reading) might be able to shed some
|> light on its origins and maybe give, or point to, some examples of how
|> it was intended to be used, or indeed how it ended up being used.
|
|I had completely forgotten about the vc command until I read this post. Vc
|was a language-independent macro processor mostly concerned with excluding
|or including lines of text based on the evaluation of logical expressions.
|
|Even though "vc" stands for "version control," it has nothing to do
with
|version control as that phrase is used nowadays. In the early 1970s where I
|worked at Bell Labs, we (or at least I) used the term "release" to refer to
|the different forms of a file as development proceeded, and "version" to
|refer to ongoing variants of the file. For example, there might be a
|version of some program for Southwestern Bell and a different version for
|New York Telephone. Those two versions were contained in the same identical
|sets of source files.
|
|I just looked again at my 1975 paper and I don't think the word
"version"
|appears anywhere. The terms "release" and "level" appear.
|
|I designed vc, but it was implemented by a college student who was with us
|for the Summer. I credit a woman named Sabrina Feczko in my paper, and I
|think it was her. As I mentioned, vc was totally standalone so Sabrina
|didn't have to concern herself with all the squirrely code in the main part
|of SCCS.
|
|Vc disappeared at some point. I don't think it was ever used, as it was
Jörg's (Schillig) SCCS ships with vc. (His version lost some
limiting restrictions according to announcements, for example line
length.) I have never used vc myself, so i cannot give examples.
(He worked quite intensively on his SCCS and the v6 file format in
his last year, wrote manuals, created tests etc. I do not think
his changeset approach was completed.)
|intended for mainframe programs that were being developed (but not
|compiled) on PWB/UNIX. For UNIX development, C had its own macro processor.
...
--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer, The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)
|
|And in Fall, feel "The Dropbear Bard"s ball(s).
|
|The banded bear
|without a care,
|Banged on himself for e'er and e'er
|
|Farewell, dear collar bear