History of C Programming

The C programming language is developed by Dennis Ritchie at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1972. It is named C because many features of C were derived from an earlier language called B.

The history of C language goes back to 1960’s, when a number of computer languages were being used for various purposes. COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) was being used for commercial purposes, FORTRAN (Formula Translation) was being used for scientific and engineering applications and so on.

Most of the modern languages including ANSI (American National Standards Institute)/ISO (International Organization for Standardization) C are derived from the algorithmic language called ALGOL which was developed by international group and introduced in 1960’s.

Martin Richards in 1967 developed programming language called BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) which was derived from ALGOL. Similarly, BCPL influenced development of programming language called B by Ken Thompson in 1970.

In 1972, Dennis Ritchie introduced “Traditional C” and it was confined to use within Bell Laboratories until 1978.

In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie published a book called “The C Programming Language”. The book was so popular and the use of C started spreading. C Language at that time is commonly referred to as “K&R C”.

In 1983, the American National Standards Institute formed a committee to produce a C programming language standard. This “ANSI C” was completed in 1988, and was approved in 1989. It was then approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1990.

Brief History of C Language

  1. 1960 - ALGOL - Developed by International Group
  2. 1967 - BCPL - Developed by Martin Richards
  3. 1970 - B - Developed by Ken Thompson
  4. 1972 - C - Developed by Dennis M. Ritchie
  5. 1978 - K&R C - Developed by Brian w. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie
  6. 1989 - ANSI C - Developed by ANSI Committee
  7. 1990 - ANSI/ISO C - Standardized by ISO