Roots II
In last November’s issue of CUJ, we celebrated the magazine’s twentieth anniversary by inviting past notables to reminisce with us. Perhaps we didn’t direct enough fanfare to the compiler that gave birth to our publication, or to its humble author...
The Compiler: BDS C
The Author: Leor Zolman
The Community: The BDS C Users Group, later known as the C Users GroupFor those whose yearnings tend root-ward, you may find of interest that Leor has released the code for the BDS (Brain Damage Software) C compiler and its 8080 linker into the public domain. (Does anyone use CP/M anymore?) I learned C in the 1980s on a two-floppy (sans hard drive) Sanyo MBC-550, with the luxury of 128 KB of RAM. Leor’s compiler ran in 32 KB on a single floppy system! Visit <www.bdsoft.com/resources.html#bdsc> for more details.
Speaking of roots, pointers have long been known as a source of both power and grief to the C/C++ developer. Well, the Phantom Poet has struck again, musing about what havoc errant pointers wreak on precious memory. I dare you to read his latest offering without hearing music in your head!
Memory
According To T(ype) S(afe) Eliot (with apologies to T.S. Eliot)Midnight, not a sound from the servers,
Has the \\moon lost her memory? Disks are spinning alone.
In the lamplight the whisp’ring air vents murmur at me,
And I wince, begin to moan.Memory, leaks all over the \\moon site,
I can smile at the old days, Fortran worked better then.
I remember a time I knew what happiness was;
Let my memory live again!
All my C apps seem to beat
A fatalistic warning
A core dump stutters, the server gutters
And pointers fry this morningDaylight, I must wait for the Sun rise —
I could C++ new code, but I just couldn’t use cin.
When the VM comes it just asks me for more memory too...
I guess new hardware will come in.
Burnt out ends of smoky cigs,
The stale, cold smell of coffee;
The debugger dies, another night is over,
Can’t get this C thing off me...Touch me, it’s so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory of my days in the Sun
If you touch me you’ll understand what happiness is
Look! my code’s begun to run.
— H.P. Typecraft
Chuck Allison
Senior Editor
cda@freshsources.com