Is it true that first versions of C compilers ran for dozens of minutes and required swapping floppy disks between stages?

Posted by sharptooth on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by sharptooth
Published on 2011-02-24T08:09:55Z Indexed on 2011/02/25 7:32 UTC
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Inspired by this question.

I heard that some very very early versions of C compilers for personal computers (I guess it's around 1980) resided on two or three floppy disks and so in order to compile a program one had to first insert the disk with "first pass", run the "first pass", then change to the disk with "second pass", run that, then do the same for the "third pass". Each pass ran for dozens of minutes so the developer lost lots of time in case of even a typo.

How realistic is that claim? What were actual figures and details?

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