On 2024-08-10 12:32:30, Peter Duffy wrote:
> Presumably, some of the team members were aware of the BCPL language,
> which had been one of the first languages to focus on portability
> (somewhere, I've still got my copy of the "BCPL book", which contains
> the source code for much of the compiler). This apparently led to the
> idea of a language which was powerful and versatile enough to code an
> entire operating system. Then, to transfer the OS to a new hardware
> platform, it should only be necessary to implement a compiler for the
> language in the context of the new platform's current system, or a
> cross-compiler on the existing one, and then the entire OS could be
> recompiled for the new platform (it would always be necessary to do
> some work at the assembly level to interface the system with the new
> hardware). Working on this basis, the team came up with a language
> which they called B (presumably A must have vanished without trace) -
> and eventually further work led to C.

Actually the B came from the first letter of BCPL, C being the second
letter.

--
A big old stinking pile of genius that no one wants
coz there are too many silver coated monkeys in the world.