What is C? What is it for? Why is it special? 1.

1 High Levels and Low Levels Any kind of object that is suciently complicated can be thought of as having levels of detail; the amount of detail we see depends upon how closely we scrutinize it. A computer falls denitely into the category of complex objects and it can be thought of as working at many dierent levels. The terms low level and high level are often used to describe these onion-layers of complexity in computers. Low level is perhaps the easiest to understand: it describes a level of detail which is buried down amongst the working parts of the machine: the low level is the level at which the computer seems most primitive and machine-like. A higher level describes the same object, but with the detail left out. Imagine stepping back from the complexity of the machine level pieces and grouping together parts which work together, then covering up all the details. (For instance, in a car, a group of nuts, bolts, pistons can be grouped together to make up a new basic object: an engine.) At a high level a computer becomes a group of black boxes which can then be thought of as the basic components of the computer. C is called a high level, compiler language. The aim of any high level computer language is to provide an easy and natural way of giving a programme of instructions to a computer (a computer program). The language of the raw computer is a stream of numbers called machine code. As you might expect, the action which results from a single machine code instruction is very primitive and many thousands of them are required to make a program which does anything substantial. It is therefore the job of a high level language to provide a new set of black box instructions, which can be given to the computer without us needing to see what happens inside them

 and it is the job of a compiler to ll in the details of these "black boxes"2 Chapter 1: Introduction so that the nal product is a sequence of instructions in the language of the computer. C is one of a large number of high level languages which can be used for general purpose programming, that is, anything from writing small programs for personal amusement to writing complex applications. It is unusual in several ways. Before C, high level languages were criticized by machine code programmers because they shielded the user from the working details of the computer, with their black box approach, to such an extent that the languages become inexible: in other words, they did not not allow programmers to use all the facilities which the machine has to oer. C, on the other hand, was designed to give access to any level of the machine downHigh Levels and Low Levels 3 to raw machine code and because of this it is perhaps the most exible of all high level languages. Surprisingly, programming books often ignore an important role of high level languages: high level programs are not only a way to express instructions to the computer, they are also a means of communication among human beings. They are not merely monologues to the machine, they are a way to express ideas and a way to solve problems. The C language has been equipped with features that allow programs to be organized in an easy and logical way. This is vitally important for writing lengthy programs because complex problems are only manageable with a clear organization and program structure. C allows meaningful variable names and meaningful function names to be used in programs without any loss of eciency and it gives a complete freedom of style; it has a set of very exible loop construc-4 Chapter 1: Introduction tions (for, while, do) and neat ways of making decisions. These provide an

excellent basis for controlling the ow of programs. Another unusual feature of C is the way it can express ideas concisely. The richness of a language shapes what it can talk about. C gives us the apparatus to build neat and compact programs. This sounds, rst of all, either like a great bonus or something a bit suspect. Its conciseness can be a mixed blessing: the aim is to try to seek a balance between the often conicting interests of readability of programs and their conciseness. BecauseThe Compiler 5 this side of programming is so often presumed to be understood, we shall try to develop a style which nds the right balance. C allows things which are disallowed in other languages: this is no defect, but a very powerful freedom which, when used with caution, opens up possibilities enormously. It does mean however that there are aspects of C which can run away with themselves unless some care is taken. The programmer carries an extra responsibility to write a careful and thoughtful program. The reward for this care is that fast, ecient programs can be produced. C tries to make the best of a computer by linking as closely as possible to the local environment. It is no longer necessary to have to put up with hopelessly inadequate input/output facilities anymore (a legacy of the timesharing/mainframe computer era): one can use everything that a computer has to oer. Above all it is exible. Clearly no language can guarantee intrinsically good programs: there is always a responsibility on the programmer, personally, to ensure that a program is neat, logical and well organized, but it can give a framework in which it is easy to do so. The aim of this book is to convey some of the C philosophy in a practical way and to provide a comprehensive introduction to the language by appealing to a number of examples and by sticking to a strict structuring scheme. It is hoped that this will give a avour of the kind of programming

which C encourages.