Re: history of C, was Is multi-level function return possible?

Andy Walker <news@cuboid.co.uk> wrote:


(snip)


> But B and C are different languages, with differing design aims
> and criteria. Having a feature in C that was absent from B is not the
> same as adding to C a feature that had previously been removed. K&R C
> was not B Mk 2, but a new language with inputs [conscious or unconscious]
> from many languages, including (B)(CPL) and Algol 68.


(snip)


> [C was influenced by PL/I. C++ is where the Algol68 got mixed
> in, and some of the C++ stuff was backported into C. -John]


I always believe that until a recent comp.lang.c discussion convinced
me otherwise.


The question related to the C conditional operator, which I remembered
in a different form from ALGOL-10 (on TOPS-10) some years ago.


I then looked up in ALGOL-60 and ALGOL-68 manuals to find out how it
changed. Seems that ALGOL-68 also has the assign/arithmetic operators,
such as +:=, -:=, x:- (where that should be a multiply sign, not an
x or *), and some more that I also don't have on the keyboard.


PL/I doesn't (or at least didn't, could have changed by now) have the
conditional operator or the assign/arithmetic operators. Both of
those, at least, go back to K&R C, and before C++.


PL/I is from around 1964 or so, but I don't know the timing
(what happened when) for ALGOL-68 at all.


The two differences I always remember between K&R C and ANSI C are
struct as argument (instead of struct pointer) and initialized auto
arrays.


-- glen

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.