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Comprog1 Lesson Proper2

C was originally developed in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs to create the UNIX operating system. It has since become widely popular due to being easy to learn, producing efficient programs, and being able to compile on many platforms. C is a high-level language that is still close to assembly level, making it suitable for systems programming like operating systems and compilers. It is portable across operating systems due to its small standard library and ability to be compiled on different machines. C laid the foundation for modern languages like C++ and Java.

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32 views

Comprog1 Lesson Proper2

C was originally developed in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs to create the UNIX operating system. It has since become widely popular due to being easy to learn, producing efficient programs, and being able to compile on many platforms. C is a high-level language that is still close to assembly level, making it suitable for systems programming like operating systems and compilers. It is portable across operating systems due to its small standard library and ability to be compiled on different machines. C laid the foundation for modern languages like C++ and Java.

Uploaded by

mariejoypica
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1 Page 1 of 15

Overview of the Turbo C Language


2.1 History of C Language
Set Theory
C is a general-purpose, high-level language that was
originally developed by Dennis M. Ritchie to develop the UNIX
operating system at Bell Labs. C was originally first implemented
on the DEC PDP-11 computer in 1972.

In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie produced the first


publicly available description of C, now known as the K&R
standard.

The UNIX operating system, the C compiler, and essentially all


UNIX application programs have been written in C. C has now
become a widely used professional language for various reasons −

 Easy to learn
 Structured language
 It produces efficient programs
 It can handle low-level activities
 It can be compiled on a variety of computer platforms

2.2 Facts about C

 C was invented to write an operating system called UNIX.


 C is a successor of B language which was introduced
around the early 1970s.
 The language was formalized in 1988 by the American
National Standard Institute (ANSI).
 The UNIX OS was totally written in C.
 Today C is the most widely used and popular System
Programming Language.
 Most of the state-of-the-art software have been
implemented using C.
 Today's most popular Linux OS and RDBMS MySQL
have been written in C.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1 Page 2 of 15

Overview of the Turbo C Language

2.3 Uses of C Set Theory


C was initially used for system development work, particularly the programs that make-up the
operating system. C was adopted as a system development language because it produces code that runs
nearly as fast as the code written in assembly language. Some examples of the use of C might be −

 Operating Systems
 Language Compilers
 Assemblers
 Text Editors
 Print Spoolers
 Network Drivers
 Modern Programs
 Databases
 Language Interpreters
 Utilities

C Programs
A C program can vary from 3 lines to millions of lines and
it should be written into one or more text files with extension ".c";
for example, hello.c.

Why Program in C Language?

Here are the advantages of C:

C is a small language, yet powerful.

It has only 32 keywords (or reserved words), which are the


commands that make up the C Language. Turbo C contains 11
more keywords to support various enhancements and extensions.
For comparison, BASIC for the IBM PC contains 159 keywords.

C is the native language of UNIX.

UNIX is the major interactive operating system on workstations, servers, and mainframes. C is the
standard development language for personal computers. Most Windows applications, database programs,
graphics libraries, and other large application are written in C.

C code is very portable.


COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1 Page 3 of 15

Overview of the Turbo C Language


This means, C is capable of running on more than one computer system or under more than one
operating system. It is easy to get a program written in C on one machine to run on a different machine.
Set Theory
You can easily transfer application programs written in C from one system to another. C is portable mainly
because the actual language definition is very small. There are very few features built into C, but using
functions, you can expand the language. The C language does not even have built-in routines for printing to
the screen or reading from the keyboard. However, there are standard functions for these and other tasks
which are supplied with the C compiler. C programs use a standard library that works the same in all
machines. These libraries allow programmers to build programs that can run in any machine that has these
libraries.

C is a structured language.

C emphasizes structured programming. In this style of programming, a complex program is broken


down into subprograms, each of which can be coded and tested individually. The various programs need
not even be programmed by the same programmer.

C is a “middle-level language”.

Although C cannot beat assembly language at producing code that is highly compact and tuned, it
is the language that probably comes closest to keeping up with assembly language. C has a powerful set of
operators that allows the direct manipulation of bit, bytes, words, and pointers. Using C, a programmer can
produce programs that are as efficient as those written in assembly language while still enjoying the
usefulness of high-level language.

C is the foundation for C++ and Java.

Though C is often criticized to have a complicated syntax since it can allow the multiple use of
some symbols such as “*” and “=”, yet this same feature is what makes C very attractive to power
programmers. C is an elegant language. Many of the constructs and methodologies that are routinely used
in C are also used by C++ and Java programs. Thus, learning C can be considered a first step in learning
C++ and Java, which both support object-oriented programming (OOP).

We had just finished the discussion on Overview of the Turbo C


Language. Let’s move on to the next higher level of activities or exercises
that demonstrates your potential skills/knowledge of what you have
learned.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1 Page 4 of 15

Overview of the Turbo C Language

Set Theory

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