Introduction to C

article by rajesh mandal <www.learnc.blogspot.com">rajeshmandal2000@gmail.com>www.learnc.blogspot.com

An Introduction to C
If you’re new to programming, the above title might sound weird to you (O.K. This article is not an introduction to the third letter of English alphabets "C":).Although a very uncommon name for a programming language, C is today’s most used programming language for education, business, research, and whatever else area you can think of. C is a very popular, widely used, general purpose (even you can use it for your own household purpose) and structured programming languages. This programming language is extensively used for applications programming (e.g. writing a program to solve a complex mathematical problem) as well as system programming (e.g. for writing operating systems).


History of C
The history of C dates back to 1970 when Dennis Ritchie at Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc. originally developed C. At first the use of C was confined within the Bell Laboratories until 1978 when computer professionals began to discover the underlying power of this programming language lying beneath its rather strange name. Largely impressed with its many desirable features, computer professionals began to promote the use of C. Many commercial programs were developed by using C and various compilers and interpreters were developed for C by mid 1980s .Also some commercial software packages that were written in another programming language were re-written in C to take advantage of the features of C. Although C was meant to be highly portable, there were minor incompabilities between different uses by different persons thus decreasing its portability. Finally this incompabilty was overcomed when the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) developed a standardized definition of the C language. Almost all C compilers and/or interpreters now adhere to the ANSI standard and many of them also provide additional features of their own.
After incorporating several new fundamental concepts that form a basis for object-oriented programming (a new programming concept that is of interest to professional programmers),C++ was built upon C. Since C++ was built upon C so every standard features available in C is also within C++. C++ is still used today extensively by professional programmers.
Now you are thinking "why should I learn C if C++ is a better option for programming and I have to migrate to the latter ultimately?".O.K., you are not wrong and of course, It would be very good (and yes, less time consuming too) to learn C++ without learning C.But you must know that learning C++ without having a prior knowledge in C might prove very troublesome to anyone. And after all, what is wrong with learning C first ? You are not going to dump your knowledge of C when learning C++. Since C++ is an outcome of C itself , so C++ makes the use of everything you learn in C and some extras features of its own, of course. So, what I suggest you is that C is the best platform to start with programming and reach to the C++ ultimately. So get hold of a good book of C programming (or regularly visit www.learnc.blogspot.com)and start towards yours goal of becoming a C programmer.

Hi,this is me Rajesh.I am a bachelor level student studying B.E.Computer in Kathmandu Engineering College ,Kathmandu,Nepal. I have posted this site to help those newcomers in C programming who are a bit nervous and bewildered because of the vastness of the subject matter. You can access many tutorials, well written and defined source codes and articles on C programming. Any constructive suggestion will be greatly appreciated.
Happy programming