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◈ALB Atlas

B Dead

B
KindProgramming language
Appeared1969
Ended1972
StatusDead
CreatorKen Thompson & Dennis Ritchie / Bell Labs
FamilyBCPL

Thompson's stripped BCPL for the PDP-7 — one machine word, one type. Unix's first language and C's immediate parent.

Descended from BCPL
Succeeded by C
Descendants C
Predecessors BCPL

Ken Thompson's B (1969) — BCPL cut to a single-word typeless language for the PDP-7 — was the first Unix language, written because the 8K-word machine couldn't host anything bigger.\n\nIt existed for a few months before the PDP-11's arrival demanded types; Ritchie's NB (New B) became C. Almost no B code survives.

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