[jacquesm]

Sure, but none of those were for systems programming which is squarely the domain that C was aimed at, case in point: the first thing that C was used to write was UNIX (before then it was BCPL and this was iirc before C even had structs which made that a very tricky job, once structs were in place it got a lot easier). Probably Don Hopkins has more knowledge about this.

[flohofwoe]

> before C even had structs which made that a very tricky job...

...interesting that you mention that, I think that functions and structs are the essential 'core abstraction tools' that get you to at least 80% of any higher level abstractions that were invented since then, and this is exactly the reason why C is still quite popular. Its feature set is just enough to be considered a high level language which enables abstractions, but not more (especially no fads and fashions that came and disappeared again).

[pjmlp]

C23 has lots of stuff into it, except improved safety.

[pjmlp]

There were enough languages for systems programming outside Bell Labs, all the way back to 1958.

It is a urban myth that C was the first one, usually pushed by naturally UNIX folks.

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