where does bss come from?

Jay R. Ashworth jra at jc3b21.UUCP
Thu Oct 9 08:29:15 AEST 1986


In article <159 at itcatl.UUCP>, parris at itcatl.UUCP writes:
> In article <161 at nbc1.UUCP>, abs at nbc1.UUCP writes:
> > > In article <2627 at burdvax.UUCP> eric at burdvax.UUCP (Eric Marshall) writes:
> > > >	Could someone please tell me where the name BSS comes from.
> > > >The comments in /usr/include/a.out.h says that it is uninitialized
> > > >data. What's the connection?
> > > >
> > > The name BSS comes from an assembly pseudo-operator on the IBM 7090
> > > machine, which stands for "Block Started by Symbol".
> > > Dennis Chen @ Olivetti ATC
> > > {allegra, fortune, glacier, hplabs, idi, ihnp4, sun}!oliveb!dchen
> > 
> > I always thought it meant "blank storage space".
> > Andrew Siegel, N2CN		NBC Computer Imaging, New York, NY
> > philabs!nbc1!abs		(212)664-5776
> 
> DAP-16 Assembly on the OLD Honeywell 1648A used the same pseudo-op, and I
> believe it was "block storage space"
> 
> parris			....gatech!itcatl!parris

Ok, guys, one more for the pile.  They always told *me* that bss stood
for basic stack segment.  I *thinKk* (you do?:-) that I got that out of an
old AT&T manual (V7?) Oh, well...
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth    	Hi Technology Consulting   	jra at jc3b22.UUCP  
Programmer/Analyst	10974 111th St. N.		(813) 392-2095
Boy Genius (:-)		Seminole FL 33544		(So they tell me)

Disclaimer: The opinions, if any, expressed in this article, if any, 
	    are not those of my employer (I am self-employed), if any,
	    or anybody else, and probably resulted from Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola 
	    is a reg. tm of Coca-Cola USA) dripping down my keyboard.



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