限定符。尽管可移植性不是C的原始设计中的一个主要目标，它在从最小的个人计算机到最大的超级计算机的不同机器上，编写程序、甚至操作系统方面取得了成功。
C诡异重重、充满缺陷，却取得了极大成功。尽管历史的机缘的却起了帮助，它显然符合系统实现语言的需要，并足够有效以取代汇编语言，仍然足够抽象和在广泛不同环境中流畅描述算法和交互。
致谢
值得简要总结在今天的C的发展中，那些直接贡献者们在语言发展史中的角色。Ken Thompson在1969-70年创造了B；它直接继承自Martin Richards的BCPL。Dennis Ritchie在1971-73年把B转化为C，保持B的大部分语法，但添加了类型和许多其它改变，并编写了第一个编译器。Ritchie, Alan Snyder, Steven C. Johnson, Michael Lesk和Thompson在1972-1977年间贡献了语言设计思想，Johnson的可移植编译器被广泛使用。在这段时期内，库例程集合得到相当发展，感谢这些人们和贝尔实验室其它许多人。在1978年，Brian Kernighan和Ritchie写作了多年被当作语言定义的那本书。在1983年初，ANSI X3J11委员会标准化了C语言。特别值得注意的是委员会官员Jim Brodie, Tom Plum和P. J. Plauger，和后续草案标准编辑Larry Rosler和Dave Prosser的努力。
我感谢Brian Kernighan, Doug McIlroy, Dave Prosser, Peter Nelson, Rob Pike, Ken Thompson和编程语言历史会议负责人员对准备这篇文章的建议。
参考
[ANSI 89]
American National Standards Institute, American National Standard for Information Systems—Programming Language C, X3.159-1989.
[Anderson 80]
B. Anderson, `Type syntax in the language C: an object lesson in syntactic innovation,' SIGPLAN Notices 15 (3), March, 1980, pp. 21-27.
[Bell 72]
J. R. Bell, `Threaded Code,' C. ACM 16 (6), pp. 370-372.
[Canaday 69]
R. H. Canaday and D. M. Ritchie, `Bell Laboratories BCPL,' AT&T Bell Laboratories internal memorandum, May, 1969.
[Corbato 62]
F. J. Corbato, M. Merwin-Dagget, R. C. Daley, `An Experimental Time-sharing System,' AFIPS Conf. Proc. SJCC, 1962, pp. 335-344.
[Cox 86]
B. J. Cox and A. J. Novobilski, Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach, Addison-Wesley: Reading, Mass., 1986. Second edition, 1991.
[Gehani 89]
N. H. Gehani and W. D. Roome, Concurrent C, Silicon Press: Summit, NJ, 1989.
[Jensen 74]
K. Jensen and N. Wirth, Pascal User Manual and Report, Springer-Verlag: New York, Heidelberg, Berlin. Second Edition, 1974.
[Johnson 73]
S. C. Johnson and B. W. Kernighan, `The Programming Language B,' Comp. Sci. Tech. Report #8, AT&T Bell Laboratories (January 1973).
[Johnson 78a]
S. C. Johnson and D. M. Ritchie, `Portability of C Programs and the UNIX System,' Bell Sys. Tech. J. 57 (6) (part 2), July-Aug, 1978.
[Johnson 78b]
S. C. Johnson, `A Portable Compiler: Theory and Practice,' Proc. 5th ACM POPL Symposium (January 1978).
[Johnson 79a]
S. C. Johnson, `Yet another compiler-compiler,' in Unix Programmer's Manual, Seventh Edition, Vol. 2A, M. D. McIlroy and B. W. Kernighan, eds. AT&T Bell Laboratories: Murray Hill, NJ, 1979.
[Johnson 79b]
S. C. Johnson, `Lint, a Program Checker,' in Unix Programmer's Manual, Seventh Edition, Vol. 2B, M. D. McIlroy and B. W. Kernighan, eds. AT&T Bell Laboratories: Murray Hill, NJ, 1979.
[Kernighan 78]
B. W. Kernighan and D. M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language, Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1978. Second edition, 1988.
[Kernighan 81]
B. W. Kernighan, `Why Pascal is not my favorite programming language,' Comp. Sci. Tech. Rep. #100, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1981.
[Lesk 73]
M. E. Lesk, `A Portable I/O Package,' AT&T Bell Laboratories internal memorandum ca. 1973.
[MacDonald 89]
T. MacDonald, `Arrays of variable length,' J. C Lang. Trans 1 (3), Dec. 1989, pp. 215-233.
[McClure 65]
R. M. McClure, `TMG—A Syntax Directed Compiler,' Proc. 20th ACM National Conf. (1965), pp. 262-274.
[McIlroy 60]
M. D. McIlroy, `Macro Instruction Extensions of Compiler Languages,' C. ACM 3 (4), pp. 214-220.
[McIlroy 79]
M. D. McIlroy and B. W. Kernighan, eds, Unix Programmer's Manual, Seventh Edition, Vol. I, AT&T Bell Laboratories: Murray Hill, NJ, 1979.
[Meyer 88]
B. Meyer, Object-orie