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C preprocessor
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== History == The preprocessor was introduced to C around 1973 at the urging of Alan Snyder and also in recognition of the usefulness of the file inclusion mechanisms available in [[BCPL]] and [[PL/I]]. The first version offered file inclusion via <code>#include</code> and parameterless string replacement macros via <code>#define</code>. It was extended shortly after, firstly by [[Mike Lesk]] and then by John Reiser, to add arguments to macros and to support [[conditional compilation]].<ref>{{harvtxt|Ritchie|1993}}</ref> The C preprocessor was part of a long macro-language tradition at Bell Labs, which was started by Douglas Eastwood and [[Douglas McIlroy]] in 1959.<ref name="BellSAP">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Bell SAP β SAP with conditional and recursive macros |encyclopedia=HOPL: Online Historical Encyclopaedia of Programming Languages |url=https://hopl.info/showlanguage.prx?exp=5635 }}</ref>
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