BLISS Language Guide

This document serves as a combined tutorial and reference manual for the BLISS programming language, updated in April 1983. It provides a comprehensive description of BLISS and guidance on its use, specifically covering its three dialects: BLISS-16 (for PDP-11), BLISS-32 (for VAX-11), and BLISS-36 (for DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20).

Primarily aimed at knowledgeable system programmers, the manual highlights BLISS as a system implementation language designed for transportable, efficient system-level programming. Key features include its "expression language" paradigm (where most constructs yield a value), facilities for low-level memory access and address manipulation, structured control constructs, and extensive macro capabilities. It details BLISS values and data representations, including fullwords, field values, and character data, emphasizing dialect-specific differences.

The document also covers the various types of declarations (data, routine, linkage, literal, etc.) and their associated attributes for defining program structure, data storage, and routine interfaces. It explains lexical processing, macro declarations and calls, conditional compilation, and the BLISS programming system's components (compiler, linker, operating system, debugger, utilities). Special attention is given to features that enhance program transportability across different hardware architectures, such as predefined literals and conditional compilation. It also describes condition handling mechanisms for managing unusual events during program execution.