C LANGUAGE:
C is powerful, flexible, portable, and elegantly structured programming language. Since C combines the feature of high-level language with the elements of the assembler, it is suitable for both the systems and applications programming. It is undoubtedly the most widely used general-purpose language today in operating systems and embedded system development.
HISTORY OF C:
‘C’ seems a strange
name for a programming language. But this strange sounding language is one of
the most popular computer today because it is structured, high-level, machine
independent language. It allows software developers to develop programs without
worrying about the hardware platforms where they will be implemented.
The root of all modern
language is ALGOL, introduced in the early 1960s. ALGOL was the first computer
language to use a block structure. Although it never become popular in USA, it
was widely used in Europe. ALGOL give the concept of structured programming to
the computer science community computer scientists like Corrado Bohm, Guiseppe Jacopini
and Edsger Dijkstra popularized this concept during 1960s.subsequently, several
languages were announced.
In 1967, martin Richards
developed a language called BCPL (basic combined programming language) primarily
for writing system software. In 1970, Ken Thompson created a language using
many features of BCPL and called it simply B.
B was used to create early
versions of UNIX operating system at Bell laboratories. Both BCPL and B were “typeless”
system programming language.
C was evolved from
ALGOL, BCPL and B by Dennis Ritchie at the bell laboratories in 1972. C uses
many concepts from these languages and added the concepts of the data types and
other powerful features. since it was developed along with the UNIX operating
system, it is strongly associated with UNIX. This operating system, which was
also developed at Bell laboratories, was coded almost entirely in C. UNIX is
one off the most popular network operating system in use today and the heart of
the internet data super highway.
For many years, C was
used manly academic environments, but eventually with the release of many C
compilers for commercial use and the increasing popularity of UNIX, it began to
gain widespread support among computer professionals. Today, C is running under
a variety of operating system and hardware platforms.
IMPORTANT OF C:
The increasing popularity
of C is probably due to its many desirable qualities. It is a robust language
whose rich set of built-in functions and operators can be used to write any complex
program. The C compiler combine the capabilities of an assembly language with
the features of high-level language and therefore it is well suited for writing
both system software and business packages. In fact, many of the c compilers available
in the market are written in C.
Program written in C
are efficient and fast. This is due to its variety of data types and powerful
operator it is many times faster BASIC. For example, a program to increment a
variable from 0 to 15000 takes abouts 1 second in C while it takes more then 50
second in an interpreter BASIC.
There are only 32
keywords in ANSI C and its strength lies in its built-in functions. Several
standard functions are available which can be used for developing programs.
C is highly portable. This
mean that c program written for one computer can be run on another with little
or no modification. Portability is important if we plan to use a new computer
with a different operating system.
C language well suited
for the structured programming, thus requiring the user to think of a problem
in terms of function modules or block. A proper collection of this modules
would make a complete program. This modular structure makes program debugging,
testing and maintenance easier.
Another important feature
of C is its ability to extend itself. A C
program is basically a collection of function that are supported by the c library.
We can continuously add our own function to C library. With the availability of
a large number of function, the programming task become simple.
here many practical for you c practical
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