BSS origins

[davidsen at steinmetz.UUCP]

I noticed a discussion of the origns of BSS. I can say that in 1962
the GE (later Honeywell) assembler had BSS (Block Starting with
Symbol), and BFS (Block Followed by Symbol).

Example:
	lbl1	bss	10		; buffer
	lbl2	bss	20		; stack
		tally	*,20		;  and pointer

The location of 'lbl1' was at the start of the block length 10, but
the label 'lbl2' was on the location *after* the block, where the
'tally' op is shown. This was the setup for a software stack. Although
there was no individual hardware stack, the user could define stacks
controlled by 'tally words' which operated in characters (6 bits),
bytes (9 bits), words (36 bits), or any multiple of words up to 64.
The people who were doing reasonable procedure calls were using a
stack to save all the registers and return address.

I think the use of BSS goes back even before that, but I can't find
any old manuals from the 50's. Perhaps I threw them out when I moved
the last time.
-- 
	-bill davidsen

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"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward"