History of C

• C
  
  - Evolved by Ritchie from two previous programming languages, BCPL and B;
  
  
  - Used to develop UNIX;
  
  
  - Used to write modern operating systems;
  
  
  - Hardware independent (portable);
  
  
  - By late 1970's C had evolved to "Traditional C".
• Standardization



- Many slight variations of C existed, and were incompatible;


- Committee formed to create a "unambiguous, machine-independent" definition;


- Standard created in 1989, updated in 1999.