Re: the end of 18 bits, The joy of FORTRAN

On 2/28/25 7:30 AM, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:

John Levine wrote this post while blinking in Morse code:
 

<snip>
>
The PDP-8 hung on because they were used in a embedded applications,
like the 680 TTY controler and a very sucessful newspaper typesetting
system.  The PDP-10 was beloved in academia particularly once DEC
turned Tenex into TOPS-20.

 My high-school had a PDP-8E "Edusystem", which a few of us kids got to play
with.
 In grad school I got introduced to the PDP-11, UNIX, C, and <cough>
TECO.
 Then MS/PC-DOS :-(

   I got started on the PDP-11 ... and 'C' was kinda
   a new language. Lots of punch cards, only the old
   guru guys got terminals  :-)
   I see there are still a few "B" compilers that ought
   to run on Linux :
     https://github.com/AlexCeleste/ybc
     https://github.com/nir9/b-compiler
   Also a BCPL compiler :
     https://github.com/SergeGris/BCPL-compiler
   Then you can have the whole 'A' B C D experience !
   Those oughtta be a blast from the past  :-)
   Doubt there will ever be an 'E' alas - maybe no
   point in it. 'D' isn't a major improvement over
   'C' as-is. K&R got it right, correct balance.
   As for 18 bits ... woulda been cool if the early
   microprocessors were 18-bit - that'd have been
   useful. Don't think they had the on-die real
   estate to implement lots of 18-bit registers
   and adders and such.