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

[Briam Rodriguez via TUHS]

Thalia — this is outstanding work. Beautifully structured, meticulously 
cited, and written with the clarity of someone who has actually read the 
code.

Well done.

-- Briam R.

On 5/20/26 1:39 AM, Thalia Archibald via TUHS wrote:
> 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