1.2 History of C Language

C Language Tutorials 

 History of C Language 

• C is a popular general purpose language
• Developed by Dennis Ritchie at AT & T Bell Labs in 1972
• C language was derived from earlier programming language called B

 

Dennis Ritchie

• B was developed by Ken Thomson in 1969-70.
• Provided the basis for the development of C.
• C language was originally designed to write system program under Unix OS

Kernighan

• American National Standard Institute (ANSI) developed a standard version of C language in late 1980s → ANSI C         
• New version provided many features that were not available in the older version

Ken Thomson

Characteristics of C Langauge

1. Convenient Language

• Provides many facilities in easier way that are difficult to use in low-level languages
• Write complex programs more easily as compared to low-level languages

2. Well-Structured Language

• Syntax is very easy to use
• Program written in C language are easy to maintain and modify

3. Machine Independence

• Program written in high-level language can be executed on any types of computers
• Example - A program written in C language can be executed on Intel and
• Motorola processors

4. Modularity

• Breaking a large program into smaller units or modules
• Modules in C are called functions
• Modules are more manageable than one large program
• Modules can be independently implemented and tested

5. Case Sensitivity

• Differentiate uppercase and lowercase words
• Makes it easier to maintain the source code
• All keywords are written in lowercase e.g. while, for etc.

7. Hardware Control

• Provides close control on hardware
• Used to write efficient programs to control hardware components of computer system

8. Small Language

• Has small number of keywords and programming controls
• Very powerful language for developing different types of program

9. Fast Code Generation

• Compiler of C language generate very fast code.
• The code executes very efficiently → programs take less time to execute