[TUHS] Curly braces: An evolution of UNIX and C

[Thalia Archibald via TUHS]

I was asked today whether the Teletype Model 33 was really used for C
development, because it lacks the curly braces required, and wrote a post about
it.
    https://thalia.dev/blog/unix-braces/

Since I've been digging into artifacts in Dennis_Tapes from when NB was evolving
into C, this turned into a history of C with close attention to that critical
period. I cover B and BCPL's %( %) syntax, the kernel's \( \) handling for
teletypes, C89 ??< ??>, and C95 <% %>, and show an evolution of "hello, world"
as a case study. It has many citation and much source analysis, and I think the
dates are pretty solid.

The real answer is that braces just weren't used in the PDP-7 era, with BCPL
syntax used for B. Then, early in UNIX V1 development, the Teletype Model 37
became popular, which supported the whole ASCII character set, so B and C
programs could be written with braces.

Thalia