[comp.unix.internals] 4.0 What's in a name

drl@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (01/28/91)

[This message was sent to INFO-UNIX a few weeks ago but generated no
repsonse - drl]

In a [not so] recent posting to unix-sources-bugs (or more likely to
comp.sources.unix.bugs), Chip Salzenburg <chip@tct.uucp> wrote (among
other things):

>... If you define NUKE_MICROSOFT from the command line or from your
>configuration header file, then these patches are disabled and the PCC
>convention is used.  NUKE_MICROSOFT is provided for those of you who
>prefer using "rcc" (SCO's name for PCC) instead of "cc".  Of course,
>if you use "rcc", then you don't need this patch at all.  :-)

This passage tickled something in my memory and I wanted to  hear from
those who really know.  I don't believe that "rcc" is actually a
Microsoft invention but rather is the name of the 3rd generation
compiler based on the original portable C compiler, pcc.  I even seem
to recall that there was some discussion of an "scc", which I assume
would be the 4th generation of the same compiler family.

Is "rcc" an AT&T derivative of "pcc"?

         David

rstevens@noao.edu (Rich Stevens) (01/29/91)

In article <25731@adm.brl.mil> drl@vuse.vanderbilt.edu writes:
>I don't believe that "rcc" is actually a
>Microsoft invention but rather is the name of the 3rd generation
>compiler based on the original portable C compiler, pcc.  I even seem
>to recall that there was some discussion of an "scc", which I assume
>would be the 4th generation of the same compiler family.
>
>Is "rcc" an AT&T derivative of "pcc"?

The paper "Four Generations of the Portable C Compiler" by David Kristol
(Proceedings of the 1986 Summer Usenix Conference, Atlanta), pp. 335-343
gives all the details.  The genealogy was pcc -> pcc2 -> qcc -> rcc.

	Rich Stevens