CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER CONTENT
Introduction
History
Characteristics of the language
First Program
A simpleprogram and explanations
Examples
Stages of program development
Summary
Exercises
HISTORY
Originally designed for and implemented on UNIX.
BCPL
(Martin Richards)
B
(Ken Thompson -1970)
UNIX PDP-7
C
(Dennis Ritchie &
Brian Kernighan -1978)
ANSI C
(1983 - 1988)
INTRODUCTION - CHARACTERISTICS
Small
C contains only the necessary minimum.It does not
supply any facilities…
For example - I/O is not supported.
How can we interact with the user if I/O is not supported
?... Libraries ! (supplied to us with the compiler).
We gain:
Efficiency (It is small and quick).
Portability (C is not tied to any particular hardware or system).
INTRODUCTION – CHARACTERISTICS –
CONT’D
Middle Level
Syntax of a high level language.
We gain:
Readability.
Portability.
BUT
Power of a low level language (assembly).
For example - a program written in C can manipulate
bits !
INTRODUCTION – CHARACTERISTICS –
CONT’D
You can write anything with C, For example :
Compilers.
Data bases.
Text processing.
Operating system.
Games.
Most of UNIX is written in C.
Most of WINDOWS is written in C.
EXAMPLE #1
This is the simplest program in C. It does…well… not much...
void main()
{
}
This program prints a message to the screen. Try to run it !
/* This program prints the message “Hello World!” to
the screen,and then goes down one line. */
#include <stdio.h>
void main ( )
{
printf (“Hello World!\n");
}
EXPLANATIONS
/* ... */ Comment is placed between /* and */.
In some compilers, comments cannot be nested.
main() is the name of a function.
main() must exist in every program exactly once.
void main() main() may call other functions.
void specifies that main does not return a value.
The parameters of a function are placed in
() parentheses. There are no parameters in this
case, so the parentheses are empty.
Beginning of a block. In the example - the
{
function body.
} End of block.
EXPLANATIONS – CONT’D
printf() A library function for output to the
screen. The requested output is
specified in “ ”.
\n New line character.
; End of statement;
One of the C preprocessor directives.
#include The preprocessor will replace this line
with the file indicated.
Search for the file in the standard
< ... >
directories.
One of the C header files. It contains
stdio.h
declarations needed to perform I/O.
STAGES OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Problem Algorithm
Coding
Definition Development
Debugging
Object File Compilation
Syntax
Debugging Executable
Linkage
Linkage File
Be A Release The Debugging
Millionaire Program Logic
SUMMARY
The C language is “small” and “low level” , this gives it
its portability and efficiency. The majority of UNIX and
Windows are written in C.
It is a general purpose language, used for writing
operating systems, compilers, data bases etc.
C was originally developed for the UNIX system in the
70’s, but is (almost) not tied to any system or hardware.
