Native code BCPL compiler for Amiga?
 

Is (or was) a native code compiler for BCPL available?

I assume MetaComCo must have one and I remember they advertised dev tools in the early 80s (although I've failed to find a copy of their ad on the net).

And I'm aware of the interpreter version on aminet.

Indeed there was one from Metacomco.

MetaComco's BCPL for the Sinclair QL

using google: site:archive.org metacomco bcpl reveals some result

but I cannot find it for the amiga in my collection.

other metacomco software i found (not yet in tosec it seems):
Metacomco-ABasiC_v1.00_1985
Metacomco-Pascal_v3.04.01
Metacomco-ToolKit_v1.2
Metacomco-Macro.Assembler_v11.0
Metacomco-Shell_v1.25
Metacomco-Lisp_v0.9

I can make a zip and zone it, if you want.

I'd be interested in the Metacomco LISP.

Yes please upload the Metacomco tools!

I'm starting to wonder whether the Amiga BCPL compiler was ever made available.

I've found ads from Feb 86 listing QL and ST tools but not a MMC Amiga ad.

From here: http://www.pagetable.com/?p=34
So maybe there wasn't a native BCPL compiler - maybe the Metacomo one was for SunOS?

zoned:
MetaComco-Collection.zip
Lisp Pascal Toolkit Assembler ABasic Shell

the lisp disk comes with df0:L/Lisp/BCPLread and some tools ( df0:c/download )
to transfer "Sun" files (readable text in the binary).
filestamps from nov 1985.

#1) is there an ebook / manual for MCC Lisp?

Yes that would make a lot of sense since prototype Amiga hardware would have been in short supply (particularly in the UK) and probably buggy then and the Suns at the time were 68K based.

while it does work with quickstart a500 - running 'lisp' on my a1200 8mb chip / 512 fast, 030/882 kick/wb 3.1
gives an error message: "not enough store to load core image"

there are some options - 'lisp ?' - but I cant make it work.

any idea?

I don't think Cambridge LISP is compatible with 32-bit addressing. You could try running NoFastMem first, or use a config that doesn't have memory outside the lower 16MB. And/or check the 24-bit addressing box in CPU settings.

There probably wasn't a (public) BCPL compiler for the Amiga. However with the leaked AmigaOS 3.1 source is what looks like a compiler executable for Sun (680x0) workstation, and the source code for that (in BCPL and 68000 assembler).

If you can get the Sun BCPL compiler working (do NetBSD or Linux support running M68K SunOS executables?), you could use that to compile an Amiga executable of the compiler.

Back in the 90's I was a student working for Philips Research in Eindhoven.
I had an old '030 Sun workstation running SunOS. Most employees had Sparc Stations. The WWW was a new thing back then!

I was at Amiga32 in Germany where Dr. Tim King & his wife gave a great talk about TripOS and the Amiga. For me it was the most interesting presentation.

The Machine Emulator does emulate sun3 68k based machines.
Sun Archive - archive of Sun3 OS 68k based.
Installing SunOS 4.1.1 to Sun3 Emulated in TME 0.8 on Linux

I've found that src under "os-source/v40/tools/src/bcpl" and notice some of the filenames are the wrong case for the "bcpl.ld" target (so clearly the src was copied off an Amiga and not a Sun!).

There are two Sun 68K binaries -- one for a 68010 and the other for 68020. It looks like NetBSD/sun3 on The Machine Emulator might run the latter if some libs are copied from https://winworldpc.com/product/sunos/3x. It might also be possible to emulate SunOS 3 or use Linux.

A friend had one of the Sun 68K systems but it was about the size of a huge washing machine and I'm not sure it ever worked!

That looks a simpler route than NetBSD!

Video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV0sdzHtKa0

I was finaly able - after some attempt many moons ago - to build it under cygwin/X
cannot find a win32 build anywhere, so this is at least a good starting point.

if you want build it under current cygwin:
1) temporarly disable cygwins ltdl.h and libltdl.a ( rename them to ltdl.h_OFF / libltdl.a_OFF )
2) ./configure --disable-warnings --disable-shared
3) make
4) should work til it starts linking "undefined reference to `XFree'" and more:
tmesh/Makefile: add -lX11 to GTK_LIBS definition:
GTK_LIBS = -lgtk-x11-2.0 ... -lfreetype -lX11

this will create a working tmesh.exe
5) make install and follow the howto above.

for the x11 part, use aewm++ windowmanager, fvwm is unstable.
startx /usr/bin/aewm++.exe and start tmesh.exe from within the x11 environment (see howto above)

sorta offtopic: you dont need a window manager for X11 applications on Cygwin just run your X server in 'rootless' mode, i think Cygwin even supplies you a startmenu shortcut for it.

NetBSD/amiga should be able to run SunOS binaries so you might find doing that on WinUAE (download a pre-installed NertBSD HDF) easier than figuring out Sun emulation. I didn't try that yet.

Edit: Seems it might not be quite that simple. From the compat_sunos man page, if the SunOS executable you want to run isn't statically linked, you need to copy various libraries from a SunOS installation.

thanks. i was missing xlaunch, it does work now. :spin
once started, open new cygwin window, export DISPLAY=0:0
next tmesh.exe <config file> does start :cool

#1) using the howto above, i get a bus error, after format/partitioning *damn* :/