3 ms·

This makes no sense and I believe you are incorrect. When Analog Devices churned out the TigerSHARC processor, they did not decide to write a C compiler for it

• pjmlp 11y ago
  C become widespread because of UNIX, just like JavaScript got widespread because of the browsers ubiquity. Eventually developers wanted to take home to their 8 bit computers what they were coding at the university and work. So RatC, Small-C and many other C dialects were born. Just like node.js nowadays, with UNIX adoption becoming the basis of the 80's graphical workstations, the pressure to have easy access to C compilers increased. Also back in the day, one paid for compilers, so the majority went to whatever what the OS official system programming language. So this is how we ended up in this situation.
• Avshalom 11y ago
  When Analog Devices churned out the TigerSHARC processor they wrote a c compiler because "C is what you use for low level code" not Forth, Pascal, Modula, Ada, Fortran, Algol, a lisp or any of the other hundreds of programming languages that have been used to write programs directly on metal on computers that the TigerSHARC outclasses by magnitudes. and "c is what you use for low level code" because decades of Unix. Decades of C being the lowest (non-assembly) level of programmers' systems, decades of being the only language that doesn't make you install an additional runtime, decades of accumulated wisdom... But those are a side effects of Unix winning, not C qua C.