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The C Programming Language (Brief History of C programming Language)

C Language Development

• C is a general-purpose programming language closely associated with the UNIX operating system. Most UNIX programs are written in C.

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie

• was an American computer scientist who, along with his long colleague Ken Thompson, created the C programming language while working on the UNIX operating system at Bell Labs in 1972. 

• Is also known as “ The Father of Programming”

Operating System Platform

• UNIX.

• Ancestor of MacOS

Development Contex

 The C programming language was developed at Bell Laboratories of AT&T. It was designed to be capable of both high-level and low-level programming, striking a balance between machine-level efficiency and the ease of higher-level programming.

Influence of BCPL

• Many important ideas in C stem from the BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) developed by Martin Richards. The influence of BCPL on C was indirect, often mediated through a language called B, written by Ken Thompson in 1970 at Bell Labs for the first UNIX system on a DEC PDP-7.

Key Milestones

• 1972: Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs writes the C language.

• 1978: The publication of "The C Programming Language" by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie revolutionized the computing world.

• 1983: The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) established a committee to produce a modern, comprehensive definition of C, leading to the creation of ANSI C.

Evolution of C 

• Early 70s: Development of BCPL and B-language.

• 1972: Dennis Ritchie develops C.

• Mid-1980s: Turbo C by Borland Corporation.

• 1980s: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) introduces C++.

• 1988: ANSI C standard is completed.