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> I beg to differ. C was a fairly obscure language until MS-DOS came out. On the early days of DOS, what was used the most was IBM-BASIC (and GW-BASIC) for use
by flavio81 9y ago
> I beg to differ. C was a fairly obscure language until MS-DOS came out.
On the early days of DOS, what was used the most was IBM-BASIC (and GW-BASIC) for users, assembler for games like Alley Cat, IBM LOGO for teaching, some games were made on FIG-FORTH even
Then borland brought Turbo Pascal which was hugely popular together with MS QuickBasic.
Meanwhile, and we're at 1986-7, a good amount of software was already made for the Unices, in C. I don't think anyone was doing C for DOS back then. My grandpa -a PC nerd- had a huge (200+) collection of diskettes around that era, which now I own, there are all sorts of compilers for the above languages, plus Fortran, Clipper, etc; but no C compiler. Even though he owned the K&R book.
First time i saw use of C on the DOS world was with Borland Turbo C++.
- WalterBright 9y agoThere were probably 30 C compilers for the IBM PC. Turbo C didn't appear until 1987, it was quite a latecomer. C was immensely popular on the C before then. Borland produced Turbo C not to introduce C to the PC, but because C was so dominant on that platform. After all, why would they have done that after being so successful with Turbo Pascal?
- WalterBright 9y agoThe Aug 1986 issue of Dr. Dobb's lists: * Aztec C * C86 * Datalight C (mine!) * DeSmet C * Eco-C88 * Hot C * IBM C * Lattice C * C Prog Sys * Let's C * High C * Microsoft C * Mix X * Toolworks C * Whitesmiths C * Wizard C PC Tech Journal reviewed 8 C compilers for DOS in their Nov-Dec 1983 issue, though I don't have a copy of it.
- pjmlp 9y agoThe majority of them unknown or impossible to buy in the 1983's reality of Portugal and Spain, as I mention in another comment.