[net.lang.c] whence "c" ?

ix222 (12/28/82)

Anyone care to speak up and tell how how everyone's
favorite programming language came to be named 'c' and
not, say, 'a' 'b' 'd' or 'codfish'?  could be a story here...

				--steve serocki
				--ucbvax;sdcsvax;sdccsu3;ix222

dwl (12/29/82)

I seem to recall having read somewhere that C was derived from a
language named B, which was, in turn, derived from a language called
BCPL.

Perhaps the next language in the family will be named P.

Or should it be D?


-Dave Levenson
-BTL Holmdel

rbk (12/31/82)

My understanding on the origin of the name "C" goes as follows:

	Once uppon a time there was an interpreted(?) language called
	BCPL (I think Basic Computer Programming Language).  At some
	point someone created a version called B that was compiled(?).
	B is the pre-cursor to C, and was "typeless" (or so; had only
	int).  This was picked up by Ritchie and turned into C, for
	purposes of turning everybodies favorite OS into a HLL (sort
	of) portable non-asm version.  C has evolved for some time now,
	so it's not clear if we'll ever be programming in "P" or "L".

Much of this (ie, all) is based on rumor/speculation/etc.  I've never
seen a spec for BCPL or B and haven't any idea by whom or why or when
they were created.

						Bob Beck
						Intel