The focus of this category is on the B programming language, developed at Bell Labs in 1969.
Developed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, the language was based on the BCPL language, the language of the first "Hello World" program, as well as the first MUD. Work on the B language began as an attempt to improve the BCPL language. Thompson began be stripping BCPL of any component that he thought he could do without, so that it could fit within the limited memory capacity of the minicomputers that were being developed at the time.
In many ways, B resembled an early versions of C, which should be no surprise since Ritchie later became the lead designer of the C language, also at Bell Labs, which began as an improvement of B.
B was created for recursive, non-numeric, machine-independent applications, such as system and language software. The typeless nature of the language was later viewed as a disadvantage, leading to the creation of C.
Although B is still an active language, with versions available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, it is not as well known as the C family of languages that it influenced.
Topics related to the B language are appropriate for this category. This includes any versions or implementations of the language, as well as compilers, editors, libraries, or tools developed for the language. Tutorials, user groups, forums, and related topics may also be listed here.
Recommended Resources
Also known as Yasha's B Compiler, YBC is a compiler for the B programming language, as specified in Ken Thompson's B manual and Brians Kernighan's tutorial. Available for free download from GitHub, the compiler is listed under an MIT/X11 license. However, the compiler will not permit the building of antique B programs from the 1970s, as it is intended to give the feel of B, although it can be used to write new programs. It is available for the macOS, Linux, and Windows.
https://github.com/Leushenko/ybc
Licensed and made available under a GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2), the B Compiler is a tool to allow for the parsing of B models, and to perform syntaxic and semantic analysis. It may also be used as a library, linked to applications manipulating B models, such as a cross referencer, code generator, or documentation generator. It may be freely downloaded from the site, along with its documentation.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/bcomp/
A modern version of the B programming language, available for Microsoft Windows, the macOS, and standard versions of Linux, B promises to be fast, with optimized code generation powered by LLVM, as well as powerful and easy, with functional standard libraries, minimal syntax, and built-in cross-compilation. Demos of a "Hello World" program and a CHIP-8 program are presented, along with documentation and download packages.
https://www.b-lang.org/
Designed by D.M. Ritchie and K.L. Thompson, the B language was primarily intended for non-numeric applications like system programming, but to be easier to write and understand than assembly language programs. This is a technical report on the language describing the MH-TSS version of B, as well as an introduction to the language's features, hosted on the site of Bell Laboratory, where the language was created. PDF tutorials and references are included.
https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/bintro.html
