Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!codas!karthur
From: karthur@codas.att.com (Kurt_R_Arthur)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: The history of C (was Re: C critisisms)
Message-ID: <1568@codas.att.com>
Date: 15 Jan 88 13:25:38 GMT
References: <883@micomvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T, Altamonte Springs, FL
Lines: 46

In article <883@micomvax.UUCP> ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn) writes:
> 
> Since posting my article on BCPL agreeing with Eric Raymond's view that the
> name stands for "British Common Programming Language" (or in fact as I just
> type this, it occurs to me that it was "British Computer Programming
> Language"!!),  I have seen several postings which lead me to believe that
> perhaps the picture is being confused by two DIFFERENT languages called
> BCPL, perhaps one in the UK and one in the US.  This was the thought which
> stopped me posting an earlier response on the subject until I saw Eric's
> article.
> 
> Somehow though I don't think so, as the BCPL I new in the 60's/70's WAS
> a language designed for system programming.  Really digging into the
> haze of time, was it developed in London?  Imperial College??  I still
> think the designer's name was Hendry.
> 
> Any further authoritative comments from the net?  In particular, was the
> predecessor of B developed in the US or the UK??

According to _The C Primer_, by Hancock & Krieger, published by McGraw-Hill in
1982, BCPL stands for:

	Basic Combined Programming Language

BCPL was written by Martin Richards, at Cambridge in 1967.

Thus, the family tree for C is:


	Algol60		Designed by international committee, 1960

	CPL		(Combined Programming Language) Designed by
			Cambridge and the University of London, 1963

	BCPL		(Basic Combined Programming Language) Designed
			by Martin Richards, Cambridge, 1967

	B		Designed by Ken Thompson, Bell Labs, 1970

	C		Designed by Dennis Ritchie, Bell Labs, 1972

I can find no references to a British Computer Programming Language or a
British Common Programming Language.

Kurt Arthur
Software Services of Florida, Inc.