From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Jan 28 20:11:21 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from 141.com (mail1.141.com [65.168.139.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16B3437B400 for ; Mon, 28 Jan 2002 20:11:17 -0800 (PST) Received: from 141.com [138.88.108.231] by 141.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-7.05) id A0F44C0E011C; Mon, 28 Jan 2002 21:11:32 -0700 To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: An interesting man page from version 3 unix. Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 23:11:19 -0500 From: Andrew Lankford Message-Id: <20020128211115.SM01296@141.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Came upon this find while rummaging through v3man.tar.gz from www.tuhs.org. I wonder why it's referred to as an "interpreter".... NAME bc -- B interpreter SYNOPSIS bc [ -c ] sfile1.b ... ofile1 ... DESCRIPTION bc is the UNIX B interpreter. It accepts three types of arguments: Arguments whose names end with ".b" are assumed to be B source programs; they are compiled, and the object program is left on the file sfile1.o (i.e. the file whose name is that of the source with ".o" substituted for ".b"). Other arguments (except for "-c") are assumed to be either loader flag arguments, or B-compatible object programs, typically pro- duced by an earlier bc run, or perhaps libraries of B-compatible routines. These programs, together with the results of any com- pilations specified, are loaded (in the order given) to produce an executable program with name a.out. The "-c" argument suppresses the loading phase, as does any syn- tax error in any of the routines being compiled. The language itself is described in [1]. The future of B is uncertain. The language has been totally eclipsed by the newer, more powerful, more compact, and faster language C. FILES file.b input file a.out loaded output b.tmp1 temporary (deleted) b.tmp2 temporary (deleted) /usr/lang/bdir/b[ca] translator /usr/lang/bdir/brt[12] runtime initialization /usr/lib/libb.a builtin functions, etc. /usr/lang/bdir/bilib.a interpreter library SEE ALSO [1] K. Thompson; MM-72-1271-1; Users' Reference to B. cc(I) DIAGNOSTICS see [1]. BUGS Certain external initializations are illegal. (In par- ticular: strings and addresses of externals.) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message