Origins of C (was: "Nobody programs in machine language" (was: Modern

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Wed Jun 23 19:17:40 2004

> >> Q: Current C compilers are written in C.
> >> What was the FIRST C compiler written in?

> >From: "der Mouse" <mouse_at_rodents.montreal.qc.ca>
> >Was there a well-defined "first C compiler"? I'm not sure there was.
> >The language we know today as C has evolved over many years, and it's
> >hard to find an obvious place to draw a "before this was not C" line.

Although I would be more inclined to agree with you on some other
languages that have evolved, C was written and documented very
deliberately.
It was written by Titchie and Thompson, and documented by Kernighan and
Ritchie. (K&R). Although there have been many later versions that have
strayed, and the ANSI standard C has significant differences, K&R C
has a known history.

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Dwight K. Elvey wrote:
> Hi
> There was a 'B' as well. I don't recall hearing about a 'A'.
> Dwight

There was a predecessor to C, that was mostly theoretical,
and rarely implemented named BCPL. The confusion over whether
the sequence was A B C D v B C P L led to:
> > I thought the puzzle was whether C's successor would
> > be *D* or *P*...


On Thu, 24 Jun 2004, Antonio Carlini wrote:
> It will be D (or D++, I forget the exact name).

I doubt it.

But C++ claims to be a successor to C.
C# claims to be a successor to C++, although
I don't know whether anybody outside of MICROS~1
takes that seriously.


> (Wasn't it Algol that was praised as being a
> considerable improvement over its successors ?)
Received on Wed Jun 23 2004 - 19:17:40 BST