Editing The C Programming Language (section)

== History ==
C was created by [[Dennis Ritchie]] at [[Bell Labs]] in the early 1970s as an augmented version of [[Ken Thompson]]'s [[B (programming language)|B]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html
|last=Ritchie
|first=Dennis M.
|title=The Development of the C Language
|date=1993
|work=History of Programming Languages, 2nd Edition
|access-date=2018-11-11
}}</ref>
Another Bell Labs employee, [[Brian Kernighan]], had written the first C tutorial,<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.harmonyatwork.in/blog/2009/10/leap-in-and-try-things-brian-kernighan/ 
|title=Leap In and Try Things: Interview with Brian Kernighan 
|date=October 24, 2009 
|work=Harmony at Work 
|access-date=2013-03-03 
|url-status=dead 
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723182804/http://www.harmonyatwork.in/blog/2009/10/leap-in-and-try-things-brian-kernighan/ 
|archive-date=July 23, 2012}}</ref>
and he persuaded Ritchie to coauthor a book on the language.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de2Hsvxaf8M
 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/de2Hsvxaf8M |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title='C' Programming Language: Brian Kernighan - Computerphile
|author=Computerphile
|website=[[YouTube]] |date=2015-08-18
|access-date=2018-11-11
}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
Kernighan would write most of the book's "expository" material, and Ritchie's reference manual became its appendices.

The first edition, published February 22, 1978, was the first widely available book on the C programming language. Its version of C is sometimes termed ''K&R C'' (after the book's authors), often to distinguish this early version from the later version of C standardized as [[ANSI C]].<ref name="k&r1e">{{cite book |last1= Kernighan |first1= Brian W. |author-link1= Brian Kernighan |last2= Ritchie |first2= Dennis M. |author-link2= Dennis Ritchie |title= The C Programming Language |edition= 1st |publisher= [[Prentice Hall]] |date= February 1978 |location= [[Englewood Cliffs, NJ]] |isbn= 0-13-110163-3 |url= https://archive.org/details/cprogramminglang00kern }}</ref>

In April 1988, the second [[Edition (book)|edition]] of the book was published, updated to cover the changes to the language resulting from the then-new ANSI C standard, particularly with the inclusion of reference material on [[C standard library|standard libraries]]. The second edition of the book (and {{as of|2024|lc=true}}, the most recent) has since been translated into over 20 languages.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/cbook.html |last=Keninghan |first=Brian W. |title=The C Programming Language, Second Edition |website=Priceton University |access-date=18 February 2023}}</ref> In 2012, an eBook version of the second edition was published in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats.<ref>{{Cite interview |url=https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1960359 |title=An Interview with Brian Kernighan on C and The C Programming Language |website=InformIT |last=Keninghan |first=Brian W. |interviewer=John Wait |date=1 October 2012}}</ref>

C was first standardized in 1989 (as ANSI X3.159-1989) and has since undergone several revisions. However, no new edition of ''The C Programming Language'' has been issued to cover the more recent standards.