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