Introduction to C programming language

Introduction of C Programming Language

C programming language is a general-purpose, procedural, and structured computer programming language.

C language was developed in early 1972 by Dennis M. Ritchie (American computer Scientist) at the AT&T Bell Laboratories, USA (AT&T - American Telephone and Telegraph) to develop the UNIX operating system. 

C is a powerful, popular, and widely used general-purpose programming language. It can be used to develop software like operating systems, databases, compilers, and much more. 

C programming language is an excellent language to learn to program for beginners because the C language has formed the basis for many other languages like Java, C++, C#, PHP, python, etc. 

That's why the C language is known as the " Mother Language of Programming ".

Let’s take more information on C Programming Language. Here the Basic Definition of the C programming language:

What is the C language?

Definition :

“C is a powerful, flexible, portable, general-purpose, and procedural computer programming language supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion, with a static type system.” code-box

The brief History of the C language is interesting to know. Here we are going to discuss a brief history of the c language.

History of C Programming Language

C programming language was developed in the year 1972 by Dennis m. Ritchie at bell laboratories of AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph), it was located in the U.S.A.

Dennis Ritchie is known as the “ Founder of the C Programming Language”.

It was developed to overcome the problems of previous languages such as B, BCPL, etc.

While C language was developed to be used in UNIX operating system. The UNIX OS was totally written in C. It inherits many features of previous languages such as B and BCPL. 

It is many concepts from theses language along with adding new features.

The language was formalized in 1988 by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI).

Today c is running a variety of operating systems and hardware platforms.

Let's see the programming languages that were developed before, with, and after the C language.

Now a day C language :

According to some organizations, UNIX operating systems are written in C and most of the codes/programs of Linux are also written in C. 

The database programs like Oracle Database, MySQL, MS SQL Server, and PostgresSQL are at least partially written in C Language.

C is the basis of many system kernels. Now a day C is widely used and popular as “System Programming Language”.

C was changed over several years and still used as a common language to use in lower-level programs, like kernels. 

But C is also used for many applications ranging from device drivers to other programming language's compilers or interpreters. 

The programming language also made way for C++, Objective-C, C#, and many more C-based languages that each have their own specialty.

Future of C Language :

C is the widely used language. It provides many features that are given below.

• Simple

C is a simple language, it easy to understand and C has written blocked form (structured form) which makes a complex program to simple and small program. 

• Machine Independent or Portable language

Not like assembly language, C programs can be executed on different machines by doing some machine-specific changes. Therefore, C is a machine-independent language. (Programs are able to run in other machines)

• Mid-level programming language

C is intended to do low-level programming. C is mostly used for developing system applications such as kernel, driver, OS, etc. 

It also supports the features of a high-level language such as support java and python etc.

 That's why it was known as mid-level language. C consists of both features at a single time so we can say C is a Mid-level or Middle-level programming language.

• Structured programming language

C is a structured programming language in the program we can break the program into smaller parts using functions. 

So it makes it easier to understand. Functions also provide code reusability and modification at any time and anywhere.

• Large Scale Library

C language provides us a lot of inbuilt functions that make development much faster. Even we can create our own library function for programming.

• Memory Management

It supports the feature of dynamic memory allocation. In the C language, we can free the allocated memory at any time by calling the free() function.

• Speed

The compilation process and execution time of the C language is fast since there are lesser inbuilt functions and hence the lesser overhead.

• Pointer

C language provides the feature of pointers. The pointer was representing the memory address of data. 

We can directly interact with the memory by using the pointers. We can use pointers for memory, structures, functions, array, etc.

• Recursion

In C, we can call the function within the function. It provides code reusability for every function. Recursion enables us to use the approach of backtracking.

• Extensible

C language is extensible because it can easily adopt new features/technology.

Use of C language

C was currently used for system development work, particularly the programs that make up the OS (operating system). 

C was adopted as a " system development language (SDL) " because it produces code that runs nearly as fast as the code written in assembly language. 

Some examples of the use of C language are - OS, Language Compilers, Assemblers, Text Editors, Print Spoolers, Network Drivers, Modern Programs, Databases, Language Interpreters, Utilities, etc.

Now, here one task for all new beginning to learn the C language

Try This C Program.

Basic C Program :

#include <stdio.h>

int main()

{

        /* Put your text between those two quotes [ " text " ] */

        printf("Hello,World");

        return 0;

} code-box

Conclusion

Now, you know that C Language is a basic and simple programming language that use for developing system software and machine software. 

Meanwhile, all programming languages inspired by C. So it helps to understand concepts programming and logic.

First, you need to understand the C programming language starting from scratch. C Is an easy and common programming language that prefers to all beginners for programming. 

The C language will give you enough understanding of programming language from where you can take yourself to a higher level of expertise. 

Also, you should have a basic understanding of Computer Programming terminologies. If you don't have any programming knowledge then don’t worries be with us.

Here you can learn a basic understanding of any of the programming languages that will help you in understanding the C programming concepts and move fast on the learning track.