From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 14 22:39:28 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B0DCC1065675 for ; Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:39:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kline@thought.org) Received: from thought.org (plato.thought.org [209.180.213.209]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 800468FC12 for ; Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:39:28 +0000 (UTC) Received: by thought.org (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 69439E80C51; Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:39:32 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:39:32 -0800 From: Gary Kline To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20101114223932.GA10006@thought.org> References: <201011132032.oADKW4FG025920@mail.r-bonomi.com> <20101113220559.GE45921@guilt.hydra> <4cdfa533.KmbS7pHvQ3h+K92G%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <20101114204450.GA9247@thought.org> <20101114214141.GD50560@guilt.hydra> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20101114214141.GD50560@guilt.hydra> X-Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. X-Of_Interest: With 24 years of service to the Unix community. User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Subject: Re: History of C (Re: Why do you use a devil as a mascot?) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:39:28 -0000 On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 02:41:41PM -0700, Chad Perrin wrote: > On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 12:44:50PM -0800, Gary Kline wrote: > > > > I'd vote for "E" since that might have more positive > > connotations that "D". :-) Skip "F" altogether. > > That might be a good point. > > Google has taught me that single-letter names for programming languages > (or anything else, apparently) are not so good for the Internet age, > however. I won't argue the point! but how about "IEEE"? I subscribed to that for years and some people noted that spoken as a word, "Ieee" was like the primal scream! Hm.... maybe the EEE language?! > > > > > > Just about the whole Murray Hill gang stopped by Cray > > (in Chippewa Falls), late 80's, and I remember asking Dennis > > what the deal was with "C++"; I remember him dodging the > > thing. Whoever-invented-C++ did a convoluted job, i s my > > opinion. It might be nice to add classes to C, but that's > > about it. > > Perhaps ironically, some called C++ "C With Classes" early on, as I > recall. Meanwhile, Objective-C ended up being what C++ initially claimed > it would be (a strict superset of C that provided facilities for OOP), > while C++ failed to live up to its own promises while expanding into all > kinds of things that were not actually desired in those early days (like > a politician once elected to office). This is, of course, largely the > perspective of an outsider, so take it for what it's worth. > About 2000, 2001 was when I shucked my "muuz" game/mind-machine effort. It was over 10K line of C-ish code that I rehacked into C++. Figured since C++ was "_the_ new language" that it was a good move. Then I realized how you could spend a lifetime learning C++ I backed off and kept it simple. > > > > > TWo questions: didn't IBM create CPL? And doesn't BCPL > > Stand for "British Computer Programming Language"? (I did have > > both editions of the C book by Brian and DEnnis; then loaned the > > 2nd edition and never got ti back.) I think Dennis gives credit > > to BCPL Somewhere. Pretty sure those guys are all retired to > > somewhere *warm and sunny* by now! > > The second edition is still in stores all over the place. It's the first > edition that would be difficult to find these days, I think. My father > tells me he has a copy, though I've never seen it; I only have the second > edition. Yeah, it's on amazon.com, but "my bible" {seriously!} is good enough. Dog-earned and coffee-stained; but it's the same as the 2nd Ed. The 2nd is ANSI-ified, IIRC. gary > > -- > Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service Unix http://journey.thought.org For non-text MUA's http://theopenpress.com/index.php?a=print&code=00&id=88532