Early Compiler

Early C/C++ compilers:

BDS-C 1979 CP/M compiler Leor Zolman (BDS-C and Small-C were the ancestors of all later CP/M and MSDOS C compilers; at that time, there was an 8080 to 8086 translator program that made such translations relatively easy to accomplish).

Small-C for the Intel 8080 by Ron Cain appeared in the May 1980 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal in source code and was released as public domain software. Small-C was a retargetable compiler. Porting Small-C only required adapting the back-end code generator and the library to the target processor and the target operating system. It generated assembler code, which was then converted into machine code by an assembler. December 1982 improved version in Dr. Dobbs.

MSDOS C compilers:

Lattice C 1982 Lifeboat Associates MSDOS, Microsoft C 1.0, (other sources report Microsoft C 2.0) was based on Lattice C and was Microsoft's first C product in 1983. The compiler was not K&R C compatible.

Microsoft C 1.0 1983, C 3.0 was the first widely used and quite usable MSDos C compiler (1985) (most of the development work at that time was done with this compiler), C 5.0 was the first with a ‘huge memory model’ (arrays larger than 64 KB)

Borland Turbo C 1987 MSDos

Microsoft Quick C 1987 MSDOS

Datalight C, developed in 1987 by Walter Bright, later renamed Zorland, then Zortech C

Zorland/Zortech C Walter Bright 1988 C++

MSDOS computers (clones from Taiwan were already available in 1984/85 and were much cheaper than the originals; even the coprocessors were much cheaper and available with minimal delay. These computers were very popular at the time):

IBM PC (initially Intel 8088 with 4.77 MHz) 1981 with cassette system. Later, one or two internal floppy drives became standard

IBM PC XT March 1983 8088 processor with internal hard disk

286-AT 1984, initially 6 MHz, later 8 MHz, first real-time clock. The 287 FPU followed in 1985

80286-XT September 1986, processor: 80286 with slow hard disk. The 6 MHz version was faster than 8 MHz AT models due to zero wait state memory.

The first version of the 386 was delivered in 1985 (386DX). The 16 MHz version (initially 12 MHz) cost USD 299 in quantities of >100. The FPU 80387 appeared in 1987 (as did the 387SX) and had many bugs in the first versions (which were only available through connections; developers received advance samples), which had to be circumvented (at prices that were quite high). Admittedly, these bugs disappeared quite quickly once production got underway.

	Early C/C++ Compiler
	Early C/C++ compilers: BDS-C 1979 CP/M compiler Leor Zolman (BDS-C and Small-C were the ancestors of all later CP/M and MSDOS C compilers; at that time, there was an 8080 to 8086 translator program that made such translations relatively easy to accomplish). Small-C for the Intel 8080 by Ron Cain appeared in the May 1980 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal in source code and was released as public domain software. Small-C was a retargetable compiler. Porting Small-C only required adapting the back-end code generator and the library to the target processor and the target operating system. It generated assembler code, which was then converted into machine code by an assembler. December 1982 improved version in Dr. Dobbs. MSDOS C compilers: Lattice C 1982 Lifeboat Associates MSDOS, Microsoft C 1.0, (other sources report Microsoft C 2.0) was based on Lattice C and was Microsoft's first C product in 1983. The compiler was not K&R C compatible. Microsoft C 1.0 1983, C 3.0 was the first widely used and quite usable MSDos C compiler (1985) (most of the development work at that time was done with this compiler), C 5.0 was the first with a ‘huge memory model’ (arrays larger than 64 KB) Borland Turbo C 1987 MSDos Microsoft Quick C 1987 MSDOS Datalight C, developed in 1987 by Walter Bright, later renamed Zorland, then Zortech C Zorland/Zortech C Walter Bright 1988 C++ MSDOS computers (clones from Taiwan were already available in 1984/85 and were much cheaper than the originals; even the coprocessors were much cheaper and available with minimal delay. These computers were very popular at the time): IBM PC (initially Intel 8088 with 4.77 MHz) 1981 with cassette system. Later, one or two internal floppy drives became standard IBM PC XT March 1983 8088 processor with internal hard disk 286-AT 1984, initially 6 MHz, later 8 MHz, first real-time clock. The 287 FPU followed in 1985 80286-XT September 1986, processor: 80286 with slow hard disk. The 6 MHz version was faster than 8 MHz AT models due to zero wait state memory. The first version of the 386 was delivered in 1985 (386DX). The 16 MHz version (initially 12 MHz) cost USD 299 in quantities of >100. The FPU 80387 appeared in 1987 (as did the 387SX) and had many bugs in the first versions (which were only available through connections; developers received advance samples), which had to be circumvented (at prices that were quite high). Admittedly, these bugs disappeared quite quickly once production got underway.

Early C/C++ Compiler