C Programming Language: Learn C Programming Language the Easy Way

By Nitin Kanani

C (/siː/, as in the letter c) is a general-purpose, procedural computer programming language supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion, while a static type system prevents unintended operations. By design, C provides constructs that map efficiently to typical machine instructions and has found lasting use in applications previously coded in assembly language. Such applications include operating systems and various application software for computers, from supercomputers to embedded systems.C was originally developed at Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie between 1972 and 1973 to make utilities running on Unix. Later, it was applied to re-implementing the kernel of the Unix operating system. 6] During the 1980s, C gradually gained popularity. Nowadays, it is one of the most widely used programming languages, 7] 8] with C compilers from various vendors available for the majority of existing computer architectures and operating systems. C has been standardized by the ANSI since 1989 (see ANSI C) and by the International Organization for Standardization.C is an imperative procedural language. It was designed to be compiled using a relatively straightforward compiler to provide low-level access to memory and language constructs that map efficiently to machine instructions, all with minimal runtime support. Despite its low-level capabilities, the language was designed to encourage cross-platform programming. A standards-compliant C program written with portability in mind can be compiled for a wide variety of computer platforms and operating systems with few changes to its source code. The language is available on various platforms, from embedded microcontrollers to supercomputers.The origin of C is closely tied to the development of the Unix operating system, originally implemented in assembly language on a PDP-7 by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, incorporating several ideas from colleagues. Eventually, they decided to port the operating system to a PDP-11. The original PDP-11 version of Unix was also developed in assembly language. 10]Thompson desired a programming language to make utilities for the new platform. At first, he tried to make a Fortran compiler but soon gave up the idea. Instead, he created a cut-down version of the recently developed BCPL systems programming language. The official description of BCPL was not available at the time, 11] and Thompson modified the syntax to be less wordy, producing the similar but somewhat simpler B. 10] However, few utilities were ultimately written in B because it was too slow, and B could not take advantage of PDP-11 features such as byte addressability.In 1972, Ritchie started to improve B, which resulted in creating a new language C. 12] The C compiler and some utilities made with it were included in Version 2 Unix. 13]At Version 4 Unix released at Nov. 1973, the Unix kernel was extensively re-implemented by C. 10] By this time, the C language had acquired some powerful features such as struct types.Unix was one of the first operating system kernels implemented in a language other than assembly. Earlier instances include the Multics system (which was written in PL/I) and Master Control Program (MCP) for the Burroughs B5000 (which was written in ALGOL) in 1961. In around 1977, Ritchie and Stephen C. Johnson made further changes to the language to facilitate portability of the Unix operating system. Johnson's Portable C Compiler served as the basis for several implementations of C on new platforms. 12]Many later languages have borrowed directly or indirectly from C, including C++, C#, Unix's C shell, D, Go, Java, JavaScript, Limbo, LPC, Objective-C, Perl, PHP, Python, Rust, Swift, Verilog and SystemVerilog (hardware description languages). 5] These languages have drawn many of their control structures and other basic features from C. Most of them (Python being a dramatic exception) also express highly similar syntax to

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 170041755X
• ISBN13: 9781700417558
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"