From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!intelqa!omsvax!rbk Newsgroups: net.lang.c Title: Re: whence "c" ? Article-I.D.: omsvax.286 Posted: Thu Dec 30 20:24:49 1982 Received: Sun Jan 2 00:54:30 1983 References: sdccsu3.217 My understanding on the origin of the name "C" goes as follows: Once uppon a time there was an interpreted(?) language called BCPL (I think Basic Computer Programming Language). At some point someone created a version called B that was compiled(?). B is the pre-cursor to C, and was "typeless" (or so; had only int). This was picked up by Ritchie and turned into C, for purposes of turning everybodies favorite OS into a HLL (sort of) portable non-asm version. C has evolved for some time now, so it's not clear if we'll ever be programming in "P" or "L". Much of this (ie, all) is based on rumor/speculation/etc. I've never seen a spec for BCPL or B and haven't any idea by whom or why or when they were created. Bob Beck Intel