Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: "ld -l<NULL>" == "ld -la" -- why?
Message-ID: <3142@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 7 Apr 90 20:39:22 GMT
References: <1990Apr3.194823.5038@athena.mit.edu> <12504@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 11

>I think liba.a didn't survive past Sixth Edition UNIX (circa 1976),

As I remember, you're right.

For those of you who are wondering "what the hell is 'liba.a'?", it was,
as I remember, a library of routines usable from assembler-language
programs (hence the "a" in "liba", just as with the "c" in "libc"). 
Back in the V6 days, there was still a fair bit of assembler code in
UNIX utilities (the original V6 "ar" was, as I remember, assembler code,
as was the original V6 "nroff", and I think some other stuff like the
"mkdir" command).