Tool Open source
An open-source reconstruction of the historically lost B programming-language compiler, developed by Angelo Papenhoff. Its B implementation uses two phases: `bc.b` compiles B source into an intermediate format, and `ba.b` converts that format into assembly; the first phase is mostly platform-independent apart from word size, while the second is platform-dependent. The repository also contains an initial C compiler used to bootstrap the B compiler, capable of producing PDP-11, amd64, MIPS32, and RISC-V 64 assembly, plus reconstructed variants for UNIX v1 on the PDP-11 and ITS on the PDP-10. The compilers generate the original threaded code, with the PDP-10 version using ASCII intermediate code. The project has been confirmed to compile itself on Linux amd64, Linux MIPS32, Linux RISC-V 64, 2.11BSD PDP-11, UNIX v1 PDP-11, and ITS PDP-10.
1 use taken from transcripts — each links to the moment in the video.
A compiler for the B programming language that translates B source code into intermediate code and ultimately executable code. It recreates the historically lost B compiler and runs on systems including old Unix machines and several modern architectures.
1 in the library.