Introduction to ‘C’ & Importance of ‘C’

Introduction to ‘C’

The C programming language was designed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories in the early 1970s.

Its Immediate ancestors and Influenced by

–         ALGOL 60 (1960),

–         CPL (Cambridge, 1963),

–         BCPL (Martin Richard, 1967)

C is called a high level, compiler language. The aim of any high level computer language is to provide an easy and natural way of giving a programme of instructions to a computer (a computer program). The language of the raw computer is a stream of numbers called machine code.

The Compiler

A C program is made by running a compiler which takes the typed source program and converts it into an object file that the computer can execute. A compiler usually operates in two or more phases (and each phase may have stages within it). These phases must be executed one after the other.

                 

                 

Standard C:

•          Standardized in 1989 by ANSI (American National Standards Institute) known as ANSI C

•          International standard (ISO) in 1990  which was adopted by ANSI and is known as C89

•          As part of the normal evolution process the standard was updated in 1995 (C95) and 1999 (C99)

IMPORTANCE OF C:

1.       A set of built-in functions and operators can be used to  write any complex program.

2.       Programs written in C are efficient and fast.

3.       This is,due to its variety of data types and powerful operators. It is many times faster than BASIC.

4.       Several standard functions are available which can be used for developing programs.

5.       C is highly portable.

6.       C language is well suited for structured programming, thus requiring the

7.       User to think of a problem in terms of modules or blocks.

8.       A proper collection of these modules would make a complete program. This modular structure makes program debugging, testing and maintenance easier.

9.       Another important feature of C is its ability to extend itself.

10.    A C program is basically a collection of functions that are supported by the C library.

11.    We can continuously add our own functions to the C library.

12.    With the availability of a large number of functions, the programming task becomes simple.