The Design and Evolution of C

Question

Hi guys,

Is there a book that describes the design and evolution of C similiar to the book 'The Design and Evolution of C++' by Bjarne Stroustrup ?

thanks, Prakash

Answer 1

Don't know of any books, but Dennis Ritchie has written a paper called The Development of the C Language (PDF). Also available as html.

Answer 2

Certainly no book like Stroustrup's would have been written at the time—though some might well have been written later, though not by the designers. Hans links to the only articles I know of.

C was developed at a time when computers were relatively rare compared to now: a small business probably would not have any, and large companies would have a very few, with each being shared by many people. Large universities would have a mainframe or two and maybe some of the larger departments would have a minicomputer.

Stroustrup seemed to be creating a tool for programmers based on a well-defined model for how problems should be solved. With C, I get the sense that its creators were making a tool for themselves to write an operating system and utilities. Only ego might have aspired them to think it would be popular. Certainly there's no way to have guessed it would have had such an important effect on modern computer languages.