<html><head></head><body><div>In grad school in the early 80's I was developing instrumentation built around a CompuPro S-100 system running CP/M-86. I used the Computer Innovations C compiler <a href="https://www.clipshop.ca/c86/intro.htm">https://www.clipshop.ca/c86/intro.htm</a> , wonder if I still have a copy on 8-inch floppies somewhere.</div><div><br></div><div>On Thu, 2024-03-07 at 17:24 -0700, Marc Rochkind wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">I got my first computer in 1981, when I was still at Bell Labs. A Zenith, as I recall, running CP/M 80. There was a C-like compiler, but it was a subset. I think that computer had a z80 chip, so it wasn't an x86.<div><br></div><div>Then I got an IBM PC in 1982, with an 8088 (16-bit word, 8-bit bus), and I'm pretty sure the first real C compiler was Lattice C. Microsoft picked it up and called it Microsoft C. Then, maybe a couple of years later, they came out with their own C compiler, written in-house, I think. (As I recall, I got my Lattice C compiler, which was very expensive, for free for writing a review for BYTE Magazine, but I can't find the review in my office or online, so maybe I'm imagining that. Or maybe I never finished the review or they didn't print it.)</div><div><br></div><div>I had an early Macintosh, too, and used Lightspeed C. I think it was essentially complete C. It was a whole IDE, incredibly fast, and I used it for commercial applications for the Mac. I continued to use that until Apple bought Next and revised their product line to use NextStep. Then I used what Apple had, but it was Objective-C (blend of Smalltalk and C) which is what you wrote NextStep apps in. I think we used Objective-C for Mac work until the early 1990s, when I stopped writing native Mac apps.</div><div><br></div><div>Lots of missing details here, I'm sure.</div><div><br></div><div>The August 1983 issue of BYTE Magazine was all about C, and has three articles reviewing C compilers for CP/M 86, the IBM PC, and CP/M 80. There's also an article called "The C Language and Models for Systems Programming" by two guys who know about that stuff, Stephen C. Johnson and Brian W. Kernighan. Here's a link to the issue: <a href="https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-08">https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-08</a></div><div><br></div><div>Marc</div></div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 4:45 PM Tom Lyon <<a href="mailto:pugs78@gmail.com">pugs78@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">I know of Plauger as a Kernighan co-author, so I did a search on AbeBooks and found - a lot of science fiction! Must investigate.<br></div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 3:27 PM Luther Johnson <<a href="mailto:luther.johnson@makerlisp.com" target="_blank">luther.johnson@makerlisp.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><div>Oops, misspelled Mr. Plauger's name, pardon me, that's "P.J. Plauger".<br></div><div><br>On 03/07/2024 04:24 PM, Luther Johnson wrote:<br>> I don't have any personal tales, but I remember that P.J. Plaugher's<br>> company, "Whitesmiths", C compiler was an early, and influential,<br>> non-AT&T C compiler.<br>><br>> On 03/07/2024 04:14 PM, Tom Lyon wrote:<br>>> For no good reason, I've been wondering about the early history of C<br>>> compilers that were not derived from Ritchie, Johnson, and Snyder at<br>>> Bell. Especially for x86. Anyone have tales?<br>>> Were any of those compilers ever used to port UNIX?<br>><br></div><div><br></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br></div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><i>My new email address is <a href="mailto:mrochkind@gmail.com" target="_blank">mrochkind@gmail.com</a></i></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><span></span></div></body></html>