B was based on BCPL, which I assume is where the name came from.
But the actual A language would be APL, which stands for A Programming Language. It’s a few years older than B and was pretty popular, so it could’ve influenced the name.
Gotta admire the wherewithal of continuing down the alphabet rather than just “Another Programming Language”, through “Yet Another Programming Language” to “Dude, Where’s My Programming Language”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_(programming_language)
TIL
🅱️rogramming language
I went looking for the implied ‘A’ language but couldn’t find it. Did find this though:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programming_languages
Surprising how many single letter names there are.
B was based on BCPL, which I assume is where the name came from.
But the actual A language would be APL, which stands for A Programming Language. It’s a few years older than B and was pretty popular, so it could’ve influenced the name.
Gotta admire the wherewithal of continuing down the alphabet rather than just “Another Programming Language”, through “Yet Another Programming Language” to “Dude, Where’s My Programming Language”.
That trend probably didn’t exist at the time
It goes back further than you may think. YACC was written in “B” originally.
It is hard for me to believe APL was popular. I forgot that Microsoft claimed to be making it for Motorola and Intel.
Ada would be a good stand in for A based on the historical context of the name.