“ C”语言的历史

到1960年，许多计算机语言已经存在，几乎每种都出于特定目的。COBOL和FORTRAN是非常具体的语言。一个国际委员会成立了，以开发可以对所有可能的应用程序进行编程的语言。该委员会提出了一种名为Algol 60的语言。1960年，有一些编程语言可用

基本的(BeginnersA二PurposeSYMBOLICInstructionC颂）

FORTRAN(FormulaTranslation)

COBOL(commonBusinessO统治L痛苦）

Pascal

The drawback of these languages is that each of these languages can be used for designing only specific type of applications. e.g. BASIC can be used for developing only general/ small applications. Fortran/Pascal can be used for developing only Scientific/ Engineering applications. COBOL can be used for developing only Business/Commercial applications.

因此,在1960年没有一个single Computer language available that could be used to develop applications that were at the same time Engineering and Business, or Scientific and commercial. So, the United States Government set up a committee to develop an all purpose language. This committee gave its report by the fall of 1960 in the form of a language called ALGOL 60 (short for Algorithm Language 1960). The drawback of ALGOL 60 was that it was HUGE and SPECIFIC.

Next major development took place in the year 1963 when a team of professors from Cambridge University studied the language ALGOL 60 and found that it contained a lot of irrelevant code. They stripped down ALGOL 60 to form a new language, which they called CPL (Combined Programming Language). The drawback of CPL was that it was BIG and SPECIFIC.

Then, in 1967 a research sechlor from Cambridge University, named Martin Richards, studied CPL and found that CPL contained some insignificant code. In his new language he just included the Basic Parts of CPL, and thus called it BCPL Although BCPL was not BIG but it was SPECIAL.

Next major development took place in 1970. 1970 is considered as a Golden Year in the History of Computers, because many important developments took place in the year 1970. One such important development was the UNIX Operating System, development by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. The UNIX O/S that was developed in 1970 was coded in ASSEMBLY, hence it lacked Portability. Dennis Ritchie strongly wanted to make UNIX portable. For this purpose, he required a language that was as powerful as ASSEMBLY and as simple as any other language.

In the same year Ken Thompson who was at that time working with AT & T Bell Labs, studied the language BCPL, and stripped it down to form a new language which he called language 'B'.

当丹尼斯·里奇（Dennis Ritchie）研究语言“ b”时，他认为通过在“ b”中进行轻微的修改，他将能够拥有一种像集会一样强大的语言，就像其他任何语言一样简单，他将能够要使用该语言重新编码UNIX使其便携式，因此他开始使用该语言。

Finally in the year 1972, Dennis Ritchie came up with the advanced version of 'B'. He called the new language-'C', since it was the successor of 'B'. Then in 1973, Dennis Ritchie recorded the entire UNIX O/S in 'C' making it PORTABLE across Machines,

C的紧凑性和连贯性主要是由于它是单人语言。主要开发C来编写UNIX操作系统。

All the programming languages can be divided into two categories:

1.面向问题或高级语言：它们旨在在更快的程序开发方面具有更好的编程效率。for ex：fortran，Basic，Cobol，Pascal等。

2.面向机器的或低级语言：它们旨在在更快的程序执行速度方面具有更好的机器效率。汇编语言和机器语言是这种语言的示例。语言C位于这两个类别之间。因此C通常称为Middle Level Language, not high level and not low level, since it was designed to have both: a relatively good programming efficiency as compared to machine oriented languages, and relatively good machine efficiency as compared to program oriented languages.