NB ==>
C definition
<language> A programming language designed by Dennis Ritchie
at AT&T Bell Labs ca. 1972 for systems programming on the
PDP-11 and immediately used to reimplement Unix.
It was called "C" because many features derived from an
earlier compiler named "B". In fact, C was briefly named
"NB". B was itself strongly influenced by BCPL. Before
Bjarne Stroustrup settled the question by designing C++,
there was a humorous debate over whether C's successor should
be named "D" or "P" (following B and C in "BCPL").
C is terse, low-level and permissive. It has a macro
preprocessor, cpp.
Partly due to its distribution with Unix, C became immensely
popular outside Bell Labs after about 1980 and is now the
dominant language in systems and microcomputer applications
programming. It has grown popular due to its simplicity,
efficiency, and flexibility. C programs are often easily
adapted to new environments.
C is often described, with a mixture of fondness and disdain,
as "a language that combines all the elegance and power of
assembly language with all the readability and
maintainability of assembly language".
Ritchie's original C, known as K&R C after Kernighan and
Ritchie's book, has been standardised (and simultaneously
modified) as ANSI C.
See also ACCU, ae, c68, c386, C-Interp, cxref,
dbx, dsp56k-gcc, dsp56165-gcc, gc, GCT, GNU C,
GNU superoptimiser, Harvest C, malloc, mpl,
Pthreads, ups.
[Jargon File]
(1996-06-01)
Nearby terms:
Byzantine « bz « bzzzt, wrong « C » C# » (c) » C*
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