INTRODUCTION TO C

INTRODUCTION TO C

The programming language C was developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at AT & T Bell Laboratories, USA. This was derived from a language called B, which was developed by Ken Thompson in 1970. The language B was derived from an existing language BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) which was developed by Martin Richards in 1967.

Characteristics of C Language:

• Structured programming and high level language i.e.,  a C program can be divided into multiple blocks where each block represents a function.
• Suitable for developing both application software as well as system software.
• It has wide variety of derived data types like arrays, structures, pointers and unions apart from fundamental data types like integers, floating point numbers and characters
• Highly portable language. i.e., programs written in one machine can be easily run on some other machine without any modifications.
• Fast execution of programs when compared to other languages.
• Provides a rich set of built-in functions and also has the ability to extend itself by defining own functions.
• Variables may be hidden in nested blocks
• C is Case Sensitive Language.
• Complex functionality such as I/O, string manipulation, and mathematical functions consistently delegated to library routines
• A relatively small set of reserved keywords
• A large number of compound operators, such as +=, -=, *=, ++ etc.
• Low level (Bitwise) programming readily available.
• Pointer implementation - extensive use of pointers for memory, array, structures and functions.
• C requires a semicolon at the end of every statement.