Whitesmiths

2025-09-01T17:35:52Z

2406:7400:51:94E3:D9CF:3085:4B92:8178:

{{Short description|Former American software company}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Whitesmiths
| industry = IT
| founder = [[P. J. Plauger]], Mark Krieger and Gabriel Pham
| hq_location = [[Westford, Massachusetts]]
}}
'''Whitesmiths''' Ltd. was a [[software]] company founded in New York City by [[P. J. Plauger]], Mark Krieger and Gabriel Pham,<ref name="fiedler198007">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uj4EAAAAMBAJ&dq=infoworld+interviews+Whitesmiths%2C+Ltd.&pg=PT3 | title=Infoworld Interviews Whitesmiths, Ltd. | work=Infoworld | date=21 July 1980 | accessdate=12 April 2015 | author=Fiedler, David | pages=4}}</ref> and last located in [[Westford, Massachusetts]]. It sold a [[Unix-like]] [[operating system]] called [[Idris (operating system)|Idris]], as well as the first commercial [[C (programming language)|C]] [[compiler]], [[Whitesmiths C]].

The Whitesmiths compiler, first written for the [[PDP-11]], was released in 1978 and compiled a version of C similar to that accepted by [[Version 6 Unix]] ([[Dennis Ritchie]]'s original C compiler). It was an entirely new implementation, borrowing no code from Unix. Today, it is mainly remembered for lending its name to a particular [[indent style#Whitesmiths style|indentation style]], originally used in the code examples which accompanied it. Whitesmith's first customer for their C compiler was Fischer & Porter, a [[process control]] company then located in [[Warminster, Pennsylvania]]. Besides PDP-11, the compiler had [[Code generation (compiler)|code generators]] for [[Intel 8080]]/[[Zilog Z80]], [[Motorola MC68000]], and [[VAX-11]], and it was commonly used as a [[Cross Compiler|cross compiler]]. Whitesmiths also developed a [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] front-end for the compiler, that emitted C-language code for input to the C compiler.

By 1983 Whitesmiths was one of several vendors of Unix-like operating systems.<ref name="fiedler198310">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1983-10/1983_10_BYTE_08-10_UNIX#page/n133/mode/2up | title=The Unix Tutorial / Part 3: Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace | work=BYTE | date=October 1983 | accessdate=30 January 2015 | author=Fiedler, Ryan | pages=132}}</ref> That year Whitesmiths formed a technical and business alliance with France-based COSMIC Software. At that time, Whitesmiths published [[16-bit]] compilers for machines like [[PDP-11]] while COSMIC published [[8-bit]] compilers for [[Intel]] and [[Motorola]] [[CPU]]s. This technology alliance improved compilers for both markets. Whitesmiths was actively involved in developing the original [[ANSI C]] standard supplying several members to the standards committee and hosting some technical sessions. They were one of the first suppliers of an [[ANSI C]] compliant compiler.

The company's president from 1978 to 1988 was P. J. Plauger. Whitesmiths merged with [[Intermetrics]] in December 1988, leading to further [[mergers and acquisitions]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://bitsavers.org/pdf/chromatics/CGC_7900/CGC_7900_C_Programmers_Manual_Mar82.pdf Whitesmiths Ltd. C Programmers' Manual]
* [http://www.cosmic-software.com/ Official homepage] of Cosmic Software

[[Category:Defunct software companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Unix history]]
[[Category:C (programming language) compilers]]
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Whitesmiths