The Missing Link Before C

Before the world ran on C, there was B. Created in 1969, this language was so minimalist that it lacked data types entirely, treating every piece of information simply as a memory word.

Ken Thompson designed B as a stripped-down version of an earlier language called BCPL to run on limited hardware. It was an essential stepping stone that led Dennis Ritchie to invent C just a few years later. While it eventually faded into history, it laid the foundation for the syntax used in almost every modern language. It remains a fascinating example of how creative constraints drive computing breakthroughs.