From:	"A. Sinan Unur" <asu1 AT c-o-r-n-e-l-l DOT edu>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: a.out.h
Date:	5 Dec 2002 22:11:57 GMT
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DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com> wrote in
news:200212051849 DOT gB5InKU20829 AT envy DOT delorie DOT com: 

> 
>> I think it was Peter van der Linden, in "Deep C Secrets", who
>> reminded us that "a.out" was so named because it was short for
>> "assembler output". 
> 
> What I heard was this: the first compiler language *way* back when was
> called "a".  Next was "b", then "bcpl", then "c".  a.out was the
> output of the "a" compiler.
> 
> You'd think we'd have c.out by now ;-)

Dennis Ritchie says:

"Thompson's PDP-7 assembler outdid even DEC's in simplicity; it evaluated 
expressions and emitted the corresponding bits. There were no libraries, 
no loader or link editor: the entire source of a program was presented to 
the assembler, and the output file­ with a fixed name ­that emerged was 
directly executable. (This name, a.out, explains a bit of Unix etymology; 
it is the output of the assembler. Even after the system gained a linker 
and a means of specifying another name explicitly, it was retained as the 
default executable result of a compilation.)"

see http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/chist.html 



-- 
A. Sinan Unur
asu1 AT c-o-r-n-e-l-l DOT edu
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