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> [...] or it was stolen without early credit from BCPL along with its other foundations? That's simply not correct. The first public paper on C (The C Program

• nickpsecurity 11y ago
  It's a contested claim. However, here's the first document and reference on the C language: https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/cman.pdf https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/cman.pdf Show me where it references BCPL. As I see it, Ritchie only references B as the inspiration for C. From the document, anyone who hadn't read the B paper (most people) would think they, Thompson, and/or Ritchie mostly came up with C's features and strengths. They eventually became known as the "C philosophy" and C-like languages. Whereas, it was Martin Richards that invented both of those plus the idea of stripped down languages for writing tools on minimal hardware. He should get credit for creating the "BCPL philosophy" that the "programmer is in control" plus inspiring a BCPL-like language called C that allowed UNIX's success. Instead, early work focused all attention on Thompson and Ritchie with UNIX papers/software making sure that was the case by adding momentum. At least I got to see the guy in action in the video linked to my History of C page. It shows his team, the constraints they worked on, why they dumped most of ALGOL, and him working with it later on. That presentation put things into an honest perspective where I can see his and UNIX founders' contributions to overall success with due credits (and/or critiques) to each.