History of C Language
Introduction
C programming language was developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories (AT&T), USA. It was created to overcome the limitations of earlier languages like B and BCPL, and became the base for UNIX OS development.
Dennis Ritchie is known as the founder of the C language.
Languages Before C
| Language | Year | Developed By |
|---|---|---|
| Algol | 1960 | International Group |
| BCPL | 1967 | Martin Richard |
| B | 1970 | Ken Thompson |
| Traditional C | 1972 | Dennis Ritchie |
| K & R C | 1978 | Kernighan & Ritchie |
| ANSI C | 1989 | ANSI Committee |
| ANSI/ISO C | 1990 | ISO Committee |
| C99 | 1999 | Standardization Committee |
Why C is Important
- Mother Language – Foundation of many modern languages (C++, Java, C#).
- System Programming Language – Used for OS, drivers, kernels (e.g., Linux Kernel).
- Procedural Language – Structured with functions and routines.
- Structured Language – Programs broken into smaller modules.
- Mid-level Language – Combines low-level (pointers, assembly) and high-level (machine independent) features.
Features of C Language
- Efficient and fast execution
- Portability across systems
- Rich set of operators and data types
- Supports modular programming with functions
- Low-level memory access with pointers
Data Types in C
Data types define the type of data a variable can store. Below are common data types:
| Data Type | Size | Range |
|---|---|---|
| char | 1 byte | -128 to 127 |
| unsigned char | 1 byte | 0 to 255 |
| int | 2/4 bytes | -32,768 to 32,767 |
| unsigned int | 2/4 bytes | 0 to 65,535 |
| long int | 4/8 bytes | -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 |
| float | 4 bytes | 3.4E-38 to 3.4E+38 |
| double | 8 bytes | 1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308 |
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