🚀 go-pugleaf

These are the replies I received in response to my earlier query
<1769@blackbird.afit.af.mil> concerning the BLISS language.
Thanks, everyone.

From steve@hubcap.clemson.edu

Bliss has been around for quite a while---back in the 70s. William Wulf
et al. at CMU did a lot of work on it. See their book:

%A William Wulf
%A {\em et al.}
%T The design of an optimizing compler
%I American Elsevier Publishing Co,
%C New York
%D 1975

From landon@APPLE.COM

Yes, BLISS is a DEC systems programming language.  I've not programmed in
it, but I've read the reference manual and some other works on it.  It
looked interesting, but since it was proprietary, I never felt like doing
anything real in it.

There were at least three compilers, BLISS-36 for the PDP-10 series,
BLISS-16 for the PDP-11s, and BLISS-32 for the Vaxes.

Wulf's book _The_Design_of_an_Optimizing_Compiler_, regrettably out of
print (though you may find it if your CS library is really good), describes
a space-optimizing PDP-11 compiler.

From ath@prosys.se

Bliss was developed at CMU by Bill Wolfe and. I understand that the
project was done on PDP/11 machines which was provided by DEC.  I
don't think it's proprietary, but I don't think there are compilers
for other than DEC hardware. (If you hear of any, please post!)

There is a book by Wulf, Geshcke and a lot of other people called 'The
Design of an Optimizing Compiler', published by Elsevier,
approximately 1972.  It contains a long description of the
implementation of Bliss, and at least one appendix of the general
features of the language.  There are also references to other
literature.

I have only seen one DEC manual on Bliss - for the DEC-10 line of
computers. It stated that Bliss was not a fully supported language.
Later, DEC wrote the BLISS-32 compiler for VAX/VMS, so I should
expect that there is a manual for that.

I don't know of any PD Bliss stuff. If the original Bliss project was
publicly funded, perhaps parts of it is available. But I think DEC
paid for it.

From kolding@cs.washington.edu

>Is it a DEC proprietary language?
    Yes.
>In any case, I would like to find out more. Where could I find 
>documentation (preferably PD)?
    From DEC.

    You probably want to avoid BLISS, however.  It's pretty ugly.  Not too many
    steps above assembler (only slightly below C in that respect).  No real
    variables, only addresses and strange dereferencing rules.  It's also
    pretty heavily bound to the VAX architecture (at least BLISS-32 is,
    BLISS-11 was bound to the PDP-11).

From jrbd@craycos.com

As I understand it, BLISS is a low-level systems programming language
originally from the PDP-11 era (i.e. it originated probably over 20 years
ago).  There was a reputedly great book written about the compiler 
(coauthored by William Wulf) that is supposed to be one of the best 
nuts-and-bolts compiler case-studies ever written.
I've never read it, though.  I believe it's out of print, but you might
try doing library searches (it might have been published by Digital Press)
or maybe asking your local DEC salesmen if they can hunt up a manual, as it
probably is still available for the VAXes.