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0 pointspjmlp4y ago0 comments

Up to 1972, computing world managed without C, and even afterwards plenty of systems until the early 1990's kept doing quite well without any trace of C code.

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Koshkin4y ago· 1 in thread

C was created in response to then dominating practice to use assembler for all kinds of coding tasks (not just “system programming”). I wouldn’t characterize the situation as “doing quite well.” On the other hand, C didn’t take off on IBM System 370 until much later, due to the availability of PL/I.

pjmlpOP4y ago

Jovial, ESPOL/NEWP, PL/I, PL/S, BLISS and a couple of others did exist and were in active use outside Bell Labs.

Even Multics actual history was only a failure from Bell Labs perspective, as they went on and were even considered more secure in a DoD security assessment.

Even IBM did all their RISC research in PL.8, before deciding to create what would be AIX, as by then it was all about UNIX workstation market.

Had AT&T been allowed to sell UNIX from day one at the same price as competing OSes, I bet C wouldn't be around.

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