18 Jun
1999
18 Jun
'99
6:25 p.m.
VMS (V5.X and before, for sure) came with an
assembler. Compilers were
always extra. At least the engineers stuck it to the marketing types when
the marketing types wanted to charge extra for *run-time* libraries for
the various languages. The engineers wrote a system utility (CUSPS, as they
were called by DEC - I forget exactly what it stands for) in each of the
Commonly Used System Program. Xerox used the same term, AFAIK. They might
have gotten it from DEC (they also wrote a timesharing system independent
of, but based on, TOPS-10). I thought there was another origin for the term
(a university?) but the Jargon File says no.
_Anyway_... do you know anything about BLISS? DEC people seem to have
complained about it, as if it was unpopular within DEC.
-- Derek