What is C ?

 C Programming Language

C  is the oldest and finest programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie at AT & T's Bell Laboratories of USA in 1972. It is also called Mother programming language. C become popular because it is simple and easy to use. It is just like an English language.

Uses :

1. Major parts of popular operating system like windows, Unix, Linux and Android are Written in C. Moreover, if one is to extend the operating system to work  with new devices, one needs to write device deriver programs. These programs are written exclusively in C.

2. Common Consumer devices like Microwave ovens, washing machines and digital cameras are getting smarter by the day. This smartness comes from a microprocessor , an operating system and a program embedded in these devices.

3. You must have seen several Professional  3D computer games where written in C.

History of C

Every language was designed for some specific purpose. for example FORTRAN (Formula Translator), was used for scientific and mathematical calculation, COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), was used for business application. So need of such a language was felt which Could withstand most of the purpose . "Necessity is the mother of invention". From here the first step towards C was put forward by Dennis Ritchie. 

The C language was developed in 1970's at Bell laboratories By Dennis Ritchie . Initially it was designed for programming in the operating system called UNIX. After the advent of C, the Whole operating system was rewritten using it. Now almost the entire UNIX operating system and tools supplied with it including the C compiler itself are written  in C.

The C language is derived from the B language, which was written by Ken Thompson at AT & T's Bell laboratories. The B language was adopted from language called BPCL (Basic Combined Programming Language), which was developed by Martin Richards at Cambridge University. 

Characteristics of C

It is a middle level language. It has the simplicity of a high level language as well as the power of  low level language. This Aspect of C makes it suitable for writing both application program and system programs. Hence it is an excellent , efficient general purpose language for most of the application such as mathematical, scientific, business and system software application.

C is small language , consisting of only 32 English words known as keywords (if, else,do, for , while etc). The power of  C is augmented by the library function provided with it. Moreover, the language extendible  since it allows the users to add their own library function to the library.

C contains control constructs needed to write a structured program hence it is considered a structure programming language. It includes structures for selection (if...else, switch) , repetition (while, for, do...while) and for loop exit (break).

The programs written in C are portable i.e. programs written for one type of computer or operating system can be run on another type of computer or operating system.