On 5/10/24 14:44, Doug Jackson via cctalk wrote: > C didn't enter my world until I started running FreeBSD in the late 90's > where it was essentially part of the OS. I remember paying $600 bucks AUD > for a Borland C compiler running under Windows, but the whole concept of > writing a simple app was insane.
As of about 1984, Microsoft recommended Lattice C. (Still have my two-floppy compiler). One had to be keenly aware of the architecture and what the compiler was doing, but at least it was easier than assembly and a bit more portable. Various C implementations, like 1960s FORTRAN implementations, could be all over the map. It wasn't until C90 that we had some sort of real standard. I remember that on Usenet, in the early 80s, I think it was Brian Kernighan ran a newsgroup for C (could have been Dennis Ritchie). One of the infrequent posts I recall was "What does this statement do?". There were several "Undefined" situations. --Chuck