Introduction of C
C programming is high level language that was developed by Dennis Ritchie. It was developed for Unix operating system in 1972. Most of operating system codes are written in C and Assembly. Currently most powerful Linux and UNIX operating system are written in the C language.
C has become a widely used for following reasons :
- Procedural programming language.
- Easy to learn compare to assembly and previous developed languages.
- Easy replacement of assembly language and it provide low-level access to memory
- High performance efficient compare than other high level language.
- Used by operating system and compiler design codes.
- Used for system programming language
- Most of the complex software have been implemented using C
History of C programming language
- B language was developed around 1970 , after that C language developed.
- C was invented to write Unix operating system and it was totally written in 1973
- In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie published the first edition of The C Programming Language.
- In 1988, Standard C formalized by ANSI and later adapted by ISO
- Refer wiki for more details
Why to use C ?
C runs faster compare than other high level language like JAVA . It is easy to convert into assembly instruction using compiler and give almost same performance as assembly duringexecution. It is mostly used for system programming and operating system development,wherever performance is high priority C is best choice. Mostly all complex and effi cientapplication developed using C language.
- C is very simple language and easy to learn.
- C is a portable language.
- Lots of legacy application is written in C.
- C allows accessing the low level access and memory access , because of this it good choice for driver and firmware developer.
Application developed using C
- Assemblers
- Operating Systems – Example: Unix , Linux , etc.
- Print Spoolers
- Language Compilers
- Network Drivers
- Modern Programs
- Text Editors – Example: Vi
- Data Bases – Example: SQLite
- Language Interpreters
- Utilities
In next article learn how to write program in C language – Hello World program in C