[rjsw]

C was usable on MS-DOS before Modula-2 or Turbo Pascal were available.

[pjmlp]

Both C compilers and Turbo Pascal already existed in CP/M, which preceded MS-DOS.

Also there were C, Pascal and Modula-2 compilers available for ZX Spectrum.

And on my part tiny of the globe I can guarantee that everyone only cared about x86 Assembly, Turbo Basic and Turbo Pascal, with Clipper for business stuff.

I only got to learn C in 1993, after having been a Turbo Pascal 3, 5.5 and 6.0 user.

[rjsw]

Being able to compile stuff on CP/M wasn't much help if you wanted to develop MS-DOS applications.

I first used C in 1983 on MS-DOS, I didn't use UNIX until a couple of years later. I bought Turbo Pascal 1.0 when it was released but already had a C compiler at that point.

[pjmlp]

My first contact with MS-DOS was with version 3.x on a PC 1512, until then I was on Z80 systems.

So I got to see the language world in a different way, given the local choice of languages as I mentioned.

EDIT: Reformulated the answer

[rjsw]

You seem to be suggesting that geography made a difference to which languages were available.

[pjmlp]

Of course it made a difference.

We only got to buy the compilers that were available on the computer local store, not always 100% original or find some magazine and order international via post.

BBS access was only available to a few fortunate capable of paying the high connection rates and the modem in first place.

We got to do with what was available to us and could afford to pay.

Some of my first Assemblers were taken from the Input magazines and typed in, because there was nothing else.

[rjsw]

It would help if you gave a hint on which technological backwater you are describing.

It wasn't any harder to buy stuff in Western Europe in the early 80s than it was in the US.