The History of the C Language

The C programming language was devised in the early 1970s by Dennis M. Ritchie an employee rom !ell "abs #$T%T&. 'n the 19(0s Ritchie wor)ed* with several other employees o !ell "abs #$T%T&* on a pro+ect called Multics. The goal o the pro+ect was to develop an operating system or a large computer that could be used by a thousand users. 'n 19(9 $T%T #!ell "abs& withdrew rom the pro+ect* because the pro+ect could not produce an economically use ul system. ,o the employees o !ell "abs #$T%T& had to search Thompson&. -en Thompson began to wor) on the development o a new ile system. .e wrote* a version o the new ile system or the D/C 0D017* in assembler. #The new ile system was also used or the game ,pace Travel&. ,oon they began to ma)e improvements and add e2pansions. #They used there )nowledge rom the Multics pro+ect to add improvements&. $ ter a while a complete system was born. !rian 3. -ernighan called the system 45'6* a sarcastic re erence to Multics. The whole system was still written in assembly code. !esides assembler and 7ortran* 45'6 also had an interpreter or the programming language !. # The ! language is derived directly rom Martin Richards !C0"&. The language ! was developed in 19(9170 by -en Thompson. 'n the early days computer code was written in assembly code. To per orm a speci ic tas)* you had to write many pages o code. $ high1level language li)e ! made it possible to write the same tas) in +ust a ew lines o code. The language ! was used or urther development o the 45'6 system. !ecause o the high1level o the ! language* code could be produced much aster* then in assembly. $ drawbac) o the ! language was that it did not )now data1types. #/verything was e2pressed in machine words&. $nother unctionality that the ! language did not provide was the use o or another pro+ect to wor) on #mainly Dennis M. Ritchie and -en

8structures9. The lag o these things ormed the reason or Dennis M. Ritchie to develop the programming language C. ,o in 197117: Dennis M. Ritchie turned the ! language into the C language* )eeping most o the language ! synta2 while adding data1types and many other

changes. The C language had a power ul mi2 o high1level unctionality and the detailed eatures re;uired to program an operating system. There ore many o the 45'6 components were

eventually rewritten in C #the 4ni2 )ernel itsel was rewritten in 197: on a D/C 0D0111&.

The programming language C was written down* by -ernighan and Ritchie* in a now classic boo) called 8The C 0rogramming "anguage* 1 st edition9. #-ernighan has said that he had no part in the design o the C language< 8't=s entirely Dennis Ritchie=s wor)9. !ut he is the author o the amous 8.ello* 3orld9 program and many other 45'6 programs&. 7or years the boo) 8The C 0rogramming "anguage* 1 st edition9 was the standard on the language C. 'n 19>: a committee was ormed by the $merican 5ational ,tandards 'nstitute #$5,'&

to develop a modern de inition or the programming language C #$5,' 6:?11&. 'n 19>> they delivered the inal standard de inition $5,' C. #The standard was based on the boo) rom -%R 1st ed.&. The standard $5,' C made little changes on the original design o the C language. #They had to ma)e sure that old programs still wor)ed with the new standard&. "ater on* the $5,' C standard was adopted by the 'nternational ,tandards @rganiAation #',@&. The correct term should there ore be ',@ C* but everybody still calls it $5,' C.