Basic Introduction
C is a general-purpose high level language that was originally developed by Dennis Ritchie for the Unix operating system. It was first implemented on the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 computer in 1972.
The Unix operating system and virtually all Unix applications are written in the C language. C has now become a widely used professional language for various reasons.
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Easy to learn
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Structured language
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It produces efficient programs.
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It can handle low-level activities.
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It can be compiled on a variety of computers.
Facts about C
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C was invented to write an operating system called UNIX.
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C is a successor of B language which was introduced around 1970
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The language was formalized in 1988 by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI).
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By 1973 UNIX OS almost totally written in C.
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Today C is the most widely used System Programming Language.
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Most of the state of the art software have been implemented using 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:
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Operating Systems
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Language Compilers
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Assemblers
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Text Editors
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Print Spoolers
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Network Drivers
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Modern Programs
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Data Bases
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Language Interpreters
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Utilities
C Program File
All the C programs are written into text files with extension ".c" for example hello.c. You can use "vi" 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 programming instructions inside a program file.
C Compilers
When you write any program in C language then to run that program you need to compile that program using a C Compiler which converts your program into a language understandable by a computer. This is called machine language (ie. binary format). So before proceeding, make sure you have C Compiler available at your computer. It comes along with all flavors of Unix and Linux.
If you are working over Unix or Linux then you can type gcc -v or cc -v and check the result. You can ask your system administrator or you can take help from anyone to identify an available C Compiler at your computer.
If you don't have C compiler installed at your computer then you can use below given link to download a GNU C Compiler and use it.
