Introduction to

Computers and C
CEN111 Algorithms and Programming I
Introduction
• C is one of the world’s most senior computer programming languages and,
according to the Tiobe Index, the world’s most popular
• Software (that is, the C instructions you write, which are also called code)
controls hardware (that is, computers and related devices)
• C is widely used in industry for a wide range of tasks
• Today’s popular desktop operating systems—Windows, macOS and Linux—
are partially written in C
• Many popular applications are partially written in C, including popular web
browsers (e.g., Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox), database management
systems (e.g., Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL) and more
Introduction
• Many development environments are available in which you can
compile, build and run C applications
• You can compile and execute C code using:
• Microsoft Visual Studio Community edition for Windows
• Clang in X code on mac OS
• GNU GCC in a shell on Linux
Hardware and Software
• Computers can perform calculations and make logical decisions
phenomenally faster than human beings can
• Today’s personal computers and smartphones can perform billions of
calculations in one second—more than a human can perform in a
lifetime
• Supercomputers already perform thousands of trillions (quadrillions)
of instructions per second!
Hardware and Software
• Computers process data under the control of sequences of instructions called
computer programs (or simply programs)
• Specified by people called computer programmers
• A computer consists of various physical devices referred to as hardware
• keyboard, screen, mouse, hard disks, memory, and processing units
• Computing costs are dropping dramatically due to rapid developments in
hardware and software technologies
• Computers that might have filled large rooms and cost millions of dollars
decades ago are now inscribed on silicon computer chips smaller than a
fingernail, costing perhaps a few dollars each
• Silicon-chip technology has made computing so economical that computers
and computerized devices have become commodities.
Computer Organization
• Regardless of physical differences, computers can be envisioned as
divided into various logical units or sections
• Input Unit—This “receiving” section obtains information (data and
computer programs) from input devices and places it at the other
units’ disposal for processing
• Output Unit—This “shipping” section takes information the computer
has processed and places it on various output devices to make it
available outside the computer
Computer Organization
• Memory Unit—This rapid-access, relatively low-capacity “warehouse” section
retains information entered through the input unit, making it immediately
available for processing when needed.
• The memory unit also retains processed information until it can be placed on
output devices by the output unit
• Information in the memory unit is volatile—it’s typically lost when the
computer’s power is turned off
• The memory unit is often called either memory, primary memory or RAM
(Random Access Memory). Main memories on desktop and notebook
computers contain as much as 128 GB of RAM, though 8 to 16 G B is most
common. GB stands for gigabytes; a gigabyte is approximately one billion
bytes. A byte is eight bits. A bit (short for “binary digit”) is either a 0 or a 1.
Computer Organization
• Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)—This “manufacturing” section performs
calculations (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and makes
decisions (e.g., comparing two items from the memory unit to determine
whether they’re equal)
• Part of the CPU
• Central Processing Unit (CPU)—This “administrative” section coordinates and
supervises the operation of the other sections
• Tells the input unit when to read information into the memory unit
• Tells the ALU when to use information from the memory unit in calculations
• Tells the output unit when to send information from the memory unit to
specific output devices
Computer Organization
• Most computers today have multicore processors that economically
implement multiple processors on a single integrated circuit chip
• Such processors can perform many operations simultaneously
• A dual-core processor has two CPUs, a quad-core processor has
four and an octa-core processor has eight.
Computer Organization
• Secondary Storage Unit—This is the long-term, high-capacity “warehousing”
section
• Programs and data not actively being used by the other units are placed on
secondary storage devices until they’re again needed, possibly hours, days,
months or even years later
• Information on secondary storage devices is persistent
• Secondary storage information takes much longer to access than information
in primary memory, but its cost per byte is much less
• Examples of secondary storage devices include solid-state drives ( SSDs), USB
flash drives, hard drives and read/write Blu-ray drives
• Many current drives hold terabytes (TB) of data
• A terabyte is approximately one trillion bytes
Languages
• Programmers write instructions in various programming languages,
some directly understandable by computers and others requiring
intermediate translation steps
• Hundreds of such languages are in use today
• These may be divided into three general types:
• Machine languages.
• Assembly languages.
• High-level languages.
Machine Languages
• Any computer can directly understand only its own machine
language, defined by its hardware design
• Machine languages generally consist of strings of numbers (ultimately
reduced to 1s and 0s) that instruct computers to perform their most
elementary operations one at a time
• Machine languages are machine-dependent—a particular machine
language can be used on only one type of computer
• Such languages are cumbersome for humans
Assembly Languages and Assemblers
• Programming in machine language was simply too slow and tedious
for most programmers
• Instead of using the strings of numbers that computers could directly
understand, programmers began using English-like abbreviations to
represent elementary operations
• These abbreviations formed the basis of assembly languages
• Translator programs called assemblers were developed to convert
assembly-language programs to machine language at computer
speeds
High-Level Languages and Compilers
• To speed the programming process, high-level languages were developed
in which single statements could accomplish substantial tasks
• A typical high-level-language program contains many statements, known as
the program’s source code
• Translator programs called compilers convert high-level-language source
code into machine language
• High-level languages allow you to write instructions that look almost like
everyday English and contain common mathematical notations
• C is among the world’s most widely used high-level programming
languages.
Interpreters
• Compiling a large high-level language program into machine language
can take considerable computer time
• Interpreters execute high-level language programs directly
• Interpreters avoid compilation delays, but your code runs slower than
compiled programs
• Some programming languages, such as Java and Python, use a clever
mixture of compilation and interpretation to run programs
Operating Systems
• Operating systems are software that make using computers more convenient for
users, software developers and system administrators
• Provide services that allow applications to execute safely, efficiently and
concurrently with one another.
• The software that contains the core operating-system components is called the
kernel
• Linux, Windows and mac O S are popular desktop computer operating systems
• Each is partially written in C
• The most popular mobile operating systems used in smartphones and tablets are
Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS
The C Programming Language
• C evolved from two earlier languages, BCPL and B
• BCPL was developed in 1967 by Martin Richards as a language for
writing operating systems and compilers
• Ken Thompson modeled many features in his B language after their
counterparts in BCPL, and in 1970 he used B to create early versions of
the UNIX operating system at Bell Laboratories.
• The C language was evolved from B by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories
and was originally implemented in 1972
• C initially became widely known as the development language of UNIX
• Many of today’s leading operating systems are written in C and/or C++
• C is mostly hardware-independent—with careful design, it’s possible to
write C programs that are portable to most computers.
Built for Performance
• C is widely used to develop systems that demand performance
• operating systems
• embedded systems
• real-time systems
• communications systems:
• By the late 1970s, C had evolved into what’s now referred to as
“traditional C.”
The C Standard Library and Open-Source
Libraries
• C programs consist of pieces called functions
• You can program all the functions you need to form a C program
• However, most C programmers take advantage of the rich collection
of existing functions in the C standard library
• Two parts to learning C programming:
• learning the C language itself, and
• learning how to use the functions in the C standard library.
• Throughout the book, we discuss many of these functions
The C Standard Library and Open-Source
Libraries
• When programming in C, you’ll typically use the following building
blocks:
• C standard library functions,
• open-source C library functions,
• functions you create yourself, and
• functions other people have created and made available to you.
• Throughout the book, we focus on using the existing C standard
library to leverage your program-development efforts and avoid
“reinventing the wheel.”
• This is called software reuse.
Open-Source Libraries
• There are enormous numbers of third-party and open-source C
libraries that can help you perform significant tasks with modest
amounts of code. GitHub lists over 32,000 repositories in their C
category:
• https://github.com/topics/c
• In addition, pages such as Awesome C provide curated lists of popular
C libraries for a wide range of application areas.
• https://github.com/kozross/awesome-c
Typical C Program-Development Environment
• C systems generally consist of several parts
• a program-development environment
• the language
• the C standard library
• C programs typically go through six phases to be executed
• Edit
• Preprocess
• Compile
• Link
• Load
• Execute
Phase 1: Creating a Program
• Consists of editing a file in an editor program:
Phases 2 and 3: Preprocessing and Compiling
a C Program
• You give the command to compile the program
• Compiler translates it into machine-language code
• The compilation command invokes a preprocessor first
• Performs text manipulations on a program’s source-code files
• Inserting the contents of other files
• Text replacements
Phases 2 and 3: Preprocessing and Compiling
a C Program
Phases 2 and 3: Preprocessing and Compiling
a C Program
• A syntax error occurs when the compiler cannot recognize a
statement because it violates the language rules
• The compiler issues an error message to help you locate and fix the incorrect
statement.
• The C standard does not specify the wording for error
• Syntax errors are also called compile errors or compile-time errors.
Phase 4: Linking
• C programs use functions defined elsewhere
• standard libraries, open-source libraries or private libraries of a particular
project.
• The object code produced by the C compiler typically contains “holes”
• Linker links a program’s object code with the code for the missing
functions to produce an executable image (with no missing pieces)
Phase 5: Loading
• Before a program can execute, the operating system must load it into
memory
• Loader transfers the executable image from disk to memory
• Additional components from shared libraries that support the
program also are loaded
Phase 5: Loading
Phase 6: Execution
• Finally, the computer, under the control of its CPU, executes the
program one instruction at a time
Problems That May Occur at Execution Time
• Errors that occur as programs run are called runtime errors or
execution-time errors
• Fatal errors cause a program to terminate immediately without
successfully performing its job
• Nonfatal errors allow programs to run to completion, often producing
incorrect results
The Software Development Method
1. Specify the problem requirements.
2. Analyze the problem.
3. Design the algorithm to solve the problem.
4. Implement the algorithm
5. Test and verify the completed program.
6. Maintain and update the program.
Reference
• C How to Program, Ninth Edition by Deitel & Deitel, Pearson, 2022.