Source Code for Apple's Lisa Operating System to be Released for Free in 2018

Except VMS had a C compiler available (I was using it in 1981) and Windows has had a C compiler available from the beginning, and DOS and TRS-DOS and CP/M all had C compilers early. The issue might be more that Unix based OS's dominate today, but if you look for example at the OS'S Perl is ported to, and that are all need a C compiler, you see C is the first compiler available on many OS'S.

C++ was initially written to target C as its output language because C could essentially be considered a portable assembler, and targeting C gave C++ immediate reach to every common OS.

--- Post Merged, Jan 1, 2018 ---

And a really, really old version of BASIC at that.

 

No, pascal doesn’t have line numbers. Pascal had functions (procedures).

PROCEDURE ReadArr(VAR size: Integer; VAR a: IntArrType);
BEGIN
size := 1;
WHILE NOT eof DO BEGIN
readln(a[size]);
IF NOT eof THEN
size := size + 1
END
END;

Pretty c-like other than syntax differences. For example, pointers use ^ instead of *.

 

C wasn't quite as common in 1983 as it was in the 1990s, but "only people working with UNIX used C" is… a stretch. Plenty of platforms had C.

 

or, more jocularly:

Code:

program BottlesOfBeer (output);
{this program plays the 99 bottles of beer song}

const
  BOTTLESSTART = 99;
  BOTTLESEND = 1;

type
  tBottles = BOTTLESEND..BOTTLESSTART;

var
  bottles : tBottles;

begin
  for bottles := BOTTLESSTART downto BOTTLESEND do
  begin
   if bottles > 1 then
   begin
     writeln (bottles,' bottles of beer on the wall, ',bottles, ' bottles of beer.');
     write ('Take one down, pass it around, ');
     writeln (bottles - 1, ' bottles of beer on the wall.');
     writeln
   end
   else
   begin
     writeln ('1 bottle of beer on the wall, one bottle of beer.');
     writeln ('Take one down, pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall');
     writeln;
     writeln ('No more bottles of beer on the wall, no more bottles of beer.');
     writeln ('Go to the store and buy some more, 99 bottles of beer on the wall.')  
   end
  end
end.

vs

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

static void song( int bottles )
{
   while( (printf("%d bottles of beer on the wall, %d bottles of beer.\n"
              "Take one down and pass it around, %d bottle%s of beer on the wall.\n\n",
              bottles, bottles, bottles-1, bottles>2? "s":""), bottles > 2) )
       while( (--bottles,0) ) {}
   while( (puts("1 bottle of beer on the wall, 1 bottle of beer.\n"
            "Take one down and pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall.\n\n"
            "No more bottles of beer on the wall, no more bottles of beer.\n"
            "Go to the store and buy some more, 99 bottles of beer on the wall."),0) ) {}
}

int main()
{
   while( (song(99), exit(0), 0) ) {}
}

from http://99-bottles-of-beer.net

--- Post Merged, Jan 2, 2018 ---

CuriousMarc also has videos of how he and his Computer History Museum colleagues restored the alto. And not a drop of retrobrite was used!