B - Programming language

B is a programming language created in 1969 by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie.

#453on PLDB

55Years Old

B is a programming language developed at Bell Labs circa 1969. It is the work of Ken Thompson with Dennis Ritchie. B was derived from BCPL, and its name may be a contraction of BCPL. Read more on Wikipedia...

Tags: programming language
Early development of B happened in Bell Labs
Explore B snippets on Rosetta Code
B on HOPL
See also: (9 related languages) ABC, BCPL, PL/I, C, Multics, ALGOL 58, Unix, TMG, Yacc

Example from hello-world:

main() {
    putchar ('Hell'); putchar ('o Wo'); putchar ('rld'); putchar ('*n');
}

Example from Wikipedia:

/* The following function will print a non-negative number, n, to
   the base b, where 2<=b<=10.  This routine uses the fact that
   in the ASCII character set, the digits 0 to 9 have sequential
   code values.  */

printn(n, b) {
        extrn putchar;
        auto a;

        if (a = n / b)        /* assignment, not test for equality */
                printn(a, b); /* recursive */
        putchar(n % b + '0');
}

Language features

Feature	Supported	Example	Token
Comments	✓	/* A comment */
MultiLine Comments	✓	/* A comment */	/* */
Print() Debugging	✓		putchar
Semantic Indentation	X