OVERVIEW OF C

INTRODUCTION OF C:
C is a general-purpose, Structural language. It is associated with the UNIX
operating system where it was developed, since both the system and most of the
programs are written in C only. The main feature of C is bridging the gap between
machine language and the more conventional high-level languages. This flexibility
allows C to be used for systems programming (e.g., for writing operating
systems) as well as for applications programming (e.g., for writing a program to
bill customers).

HISTORY OF C:

C was originally developed in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Telephone

Laboratories, Inc. (now a part ofAT&T).many of the ideas of C comes from Two
languages called BPCL and B, which were also developed at Bell Laboratories.
BCPL and B are ``typeless'' languages. By contrast, C provides a variety of data
types. By the mid 1980s, the popularity of C had become widespread. Moreover,
many commercial software products that were originally written in other languages
were rewritten in C in order to take advantage of its efficiency and its portability.
CHARACTERISTICS OF C:

C consist of 32 as (English words) keywords (if, else, for, break etc.) The power of
C is extended by the library functions provided with it. Moreover, The C allows
the users to add their own library functions to the library.
C contains control constructs needed to write a structured program so, it is
considered a structure programming language. It includes structures for selection
(if.. .else, switch), repetition (while, for, do... while) and for loop exit(break).
The programs written in C are portable i.e. programs written for one type of
computer or operating system can be run on another type of computer or operating
system.
STRUCTURE OF A C PROGRAM:

The C viewed as group of building blocks called as Functions. The Functions are
the sub-routines that contain one or more statement to do some specific task. This
section contains two parts, declaration part and executable part. The declaration
part declares all the variables used in the executable part. The program begins with
open brace and program ends with closing brace.

The Subprogram section contains the entire user-define functions that are called in
the main function .User defined functions are generally placed immediately after
the main function.