Editing Lint (software) (section)

==History==
[[Stephen C. Johnson]], a computer scientist at [[Bell Labs]], came up with the term "lint" in 1978 while debugging the [[yacc]] grammar he was writing for [[C (programming language)|C]] and dealing with [[Software portability|portability]] issues stemming from porting [[Unix]] to a [[32-bit]] machine.<ref name="red"/><ref name="BellLabs"/> The term was borrowed from the word [[Lint (material)|lint]], the tiny bits of fiber and fluff shed by clothing, as the command he wrote would act like a lint trap in a clothes dryer, capturing waste fibers while leaving whole fabrics intact. In 1979, lint programming was used outside of Bell Labs for the first time, in the seventh version ([[Version 7 Unix|V7]]) of Unix.

Over the years, different versions of lint have been developed for many [[C (programming language)|C]] and [[C++]] [[compiler]]s, and while modern-day compilers have lint-like functions, lint-like tools have also advanced their capabilities. For example, Gimpel's [[PC-Lint]], introduced in 1985 and used to analyze C++ source code, is still for sale.<ref name="red">{{cite news|last1=Morris|first1=Richard|title=Stephen Curtis Johnson: Geek of the Week|url=https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/opinion/geek-of-the-week/stephen-curtis-johnson-geek-of-the-week/|access-date=19 January 2018|work=Red Gate Software|date=1 October 2009}}</ref>