- Forward


A Brief History of C/C++


Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

Computer Science Department
bernstdh@jmu.edu

Print

Some "Ancient" History
Back Forward
  • Mid 1960s:
    • Martin Richards developed the typeless language BCPL (Basic Combined Progamming Language) as a simplification of CPL
  • Late 1960s and early 1970s:
    • Ken Thompson developed the typeless language B (based on BCPL)
    • B was used to develop the early versions of the UNIX operating system on the DEC PDP-7
  • 1971:
    • Dennis Ritchie began to extend B (most notably, adding a character type)
    • He called the extended language NB (for "new B" and, perhaps, the Latin nota bene)
Some "Ancient" History (cont.)
Back Forward
  • Early 1970s:
    • Dennis Ritchie started working on a language called C with more types and with type composition (similar to that in Algol)
    • The name is either a progression through the alphabet or through the letters in BCPL (Ritchie himself won't say)
    • C was used to write the UNIX kernel for the PDP-11
  • 1977-1978:
    • C underwent extensive modifications
    • The book The C Programming Language was written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie
  • 1983:
    • ANSI began the process of standardizing C
    • The standard was accepted by ISO in 1990 and is known as either C89 (when it was completed) or C90 (when it was ratified)
Some "Ancient" History (cont.)
Back Forward
  • 1980:
    • Bjarne Stroustrup begain working on what he called "C-with-classes"
    • He wanted to add the facilities for object-oriented programming contained in the SIMULA programming language to C
  • 1983:
    • The language was re-designed and re-named C++
    • Originally, C++ source code had to be "pre-compiled" (the pre-compiler converted C++ constructs to plain C)
  • Mid to Late 1980s:
    • The first commercial version of C++ was released in 1985
    • In 1989 ISO began the standardization process (completed in 1998)
Some "Less Ancient" History
Back Forward
  • More Recent C Standards:
    • C99 (1999)
    • C11 (2011)
  • Some Other Descendants:
    • Concurrent C (1989)
    • Objective-C (1991)
    • C* (1990)
  • Security-Oriented Descendants:
    • Rust (2010)
    • Checked C (2016)
  • More Recent C++ Standards:
    • C++11 (2011)
There's Always More to Learn
Back -