C Programming Tutorial : Chapter 1

C PROGRAMMING TUTORIAL
 Simply Easy Learning by scopian.com

CHAPTER 1

C Language Overview This chapter describes the basic details about C programming language, how it emerged, what are strengths of C and why we should use C. 

The C programming language 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 applications programs have been written in C. 

The 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. Facts about C 

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

 C is a successor of B language, which was introduced around 1970.

 The language was formalized in 1988 by the American National Standard Institute. (ANSI).

 The UNIX OS was totally written in C by 1973.

 Today, C is the most widely used and popular System Programming Language. 

 Most of the state-of-the-art softwares have been implemented using C. 

 Today's most ][popular Linux OS and RBDMS MySQL have been written in C. 

Why to use C? 

C was initially used for system development work, in particular 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 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. You can use "vi", "vim" or any other text editor to write your C program into a file. This tutorial assumes that you know how to edit a text file and how to write source code using any programming language.

Chapter 2