Introduction To C Programming

What is C Language?

C programming language is general purpose computer programming language. It is also called low level programming language because it is used to develop operating systems, hardware devices drivers, operating systems kernels. For example Linux operating system kernel  is written in C language. 

C is Mother of all programming language: 

 C language is called the mother language because most of the compilers are written in C language. For example java virtual machine(JVM), kernels etc. This language provides the main basic concepts of programming such as decision making, control structure of program, array, pointers, functions and file handling. All these basic programming concepts are very important in all other programming languages. 

C language is procedural programming language because it provides a series of steps to solve problems. Procedural programming helps to break larger size programs into smaller functions, modules, data structures.
C programming is also called structured programming, structured programming is a subset of procedural programming paradigm. Structure means breaking down big programs into smaller parts or blocks. Using a C language programmer can break a program into functions. It makes it easier to understand and modify the programs. 

C language is considered a mid level programming language, because it supports the features of both low level and high level of programming languages.  C language program converts into assembly code but it is machine independent. 

C language supports low level programming which is machine dependent and also supports high level programming which is machine independent. 

History of C Language:

C programming language was developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972 at At & T(American Telephone and Telegraph) Bell Laboratory USA. Dennis Ritchie is the founder of C programming. This language is developed to overcome the problems of languages like B, BCPL etc. Initially the C language was developed and used in the UNIX operating system. 

Before C language 

Algol language was developed in 1960

BPCL language was developed in 1967

B language was developed in 1970

C was developed in 1972

Features of C Language:

• C is a very simple language. C language is a rich source of library functions. 

• C is machine independent or portable , C programs are executed on different machines, on different platforms.

• C is a rich source of library functions which makes software development very fast.

• C is a mid level programming language which supports both low level and high level programming approaches.

• C is a structured programming language which helps to break the main program into different parts using functions.

• C provides pointers with the help of it so we can directly interact with the memory.

• C provides a recursion facility where programmers can call function within function. Reusability of code is the most important feature of c.