BDS C

BDS C (or the BD Software C Compiler) is a compiler for a sizeable subset of the C programming language, that ran on and generated code for the Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 processors. It was the first C compiler for CP/M.[1] It was written by Leor Zolman[2] and first released in 1979 when he was 20 years old. "BDS" stands for "Brain Damage Software."

BDS C
Original author(s)Leor Zolman
Initial release1979 (1979)
Stable release
1.60c
Operating systemCP/M
TypeCompiler
LicensePublic-domain software
Websitewww.bdsoft.com/resources/bdsc.html

BDS C was popular and influential among CP/M users and developers in the 8-bit microcomputer era. It ran much faster and was more convenient to use than other Z80-hosted compilers of the time. It was possible to run BDS C on single-floppy machines with as little as 30K of RAM in comparison to most other commercial compilers which required many passes and the writing of intermediate files to disk. Around 75,000 copies were sold, including a stripped down Japanese incarnation.

A number of important commercial CP/M products were written in the BDS C subset (no long integer, no floating-point arithmetic) of the C language, including PeachText from PeachTree Software, MINCE and Scribble from Mark of the Unicorn, and most of the software in the Perfect Software suite including Perfect Writer, PerfectCalc, PerfectSpeller and PerfectFiler (which suite was bundled with the Kaypro).

Weak points of BDS C were that the floating point math routines and the file access functions were incompatible with the Unix C compiler's and its relocatable object files were not compatible with the Microsoft assembler, making it more difficult to integrate C code with assembly language.[3]

BDS C was bundled with a subset of the Unix system written in about 1980, called MARC (Machine Assisted Resource Coordinator). This effort in some ways resembled GNU, though MARC was to be able to run CP/M software through emulation. Unfortunately MARC's author, Ed Ziemba, perished in a snorkeling accident before he could complete the project.[4]

In 2002, Leor Zolman released the 8080 assembly language source code for BDS C into the public domain.

See also

References
  1. "The Official Book for the Commodore 128". BDS-C was the first version of C on the market for CP/M. It has evolved over the years into a very bug-free product preferred by many users. The language is not as complete as the one described by Kernighan and Ritchie's The C Programming Language (Prentice-Hall, 1978), but it does contain a large subset of the important features.
  2. "about". Archived from the original on 2005-12-02. Retrieved 2005-12-16.
  3. "The Official Book for the Commodore 128".
  4. InfoWorld (17 Aug 1981)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.