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Oy. Your history is ... confused.

While the first draft was released in 1983, the first ratified C standard was in 1989.

The first edition of "The C Programming Language" (from which I first learned the language) was published in 1978, over a decade before the language was standardized.

You are correct that C89 added function prototypes. However, contrary to your implication, C borrowed the concept and syntax from C++.

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Everything I said was correct. I was a member of X3J11 (which was established in summer 1983), the C language standard, and was the first person on the planet to vote to approve it (due to alphabetical order) ... that was in 1985. It was several years before it was ratified, the delay having to do with standardization politics which required a lot of buy-in. I have no idea why you're mentioning the first edition of K&R from years earlier, which of course did not have prototypes.

There's a notable difference between C's prototypes and C++'s ... `int foo();` in C is not a prototype, whereas in C++ it's equivalent to `int foo(void);` ... C had to maintain compatibility with K&R style declarations, whereas C++ didn't.

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