History of C (Re: Why do you use a devil as a mascot?)

[Chad Perrin]

On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 12:44:50PM -0800, Gary Kline wrote:
> 
> 	I'd vote for "E" since that might have more positive
> 	connotations that "D".  :-)  Skip "F" altogether.

That might be a good point.

Google has taught me that single-letter names for programming languages
(or anything else, apparently) are not so good for the Internet age,
however.


> 
> 	Just about the whole Murray Hill gang stopped by Cray 
> 	(in Chippewa Falls), late 80's, and I remember asking Dennis
> 	what the deal was with "C++"; I remember him dodging the
> 	thing.  Whoever-invented-C++ did a convoluted job, i s my
> 	opinion.  It might be nice to add classes to C, but that's
> 	about it.

Perhaps ironically, some called C++ "C With Classes" early on, as I
recall.  Meanwhile, Objective-C ended up being what C++ initially claimed
it would be (a strict superset of C that provided facilities for OOP),
while C++ failed to live up to its own promises while expanding into all
kinds of things that were not actually desired in those early days (like
a politician once elected to office).  This is, of course, largely the
perspective of an outsider, so take it for what it's worth.


> 
> 	TWo questions: didn't IBM create CPL? And doesn't BCPL
> 	Stand for "British Computer Programming Language"?  (I did have
> 	both editions of the C book by Brian and DEnnis; then loaned the
> 	2nd edition and never got ti back.)  I think Dennis gives credit
> 	to BCPL Somewhere.  Pretty sure those guys are all retired to
> 	somewhere *warm and sunny* by now!

The second edition is still in stores all over the place.  It's the first
edition that would be difficult to find these days, I think.  My father
tells me he has a copy, though I've never seen it; I only have the second
edition.

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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