C (programming language)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the programming language. For other uses, see C
(disambiguation).
C
The C Programming Language!" (often referred to as #$%&#), the seminal
book on C
Paradigm(s) 'mperati(e (procedural), structured
)esigned by )ennis &itchie
)e(eloper )ennis &itchie % *ell Labs (creators)+ ,-.' /01!! (,-.' C)+
'.23'4C 1TC!3.C553W6!7 ('.2 C)
,ppeared in !8955"
.table release C!! 3 )ecember 5:!!
Typing discipline .tatic, ;eak, manifest, nominal
<a=or implementations 6CC, Clang, 'ntel C, <.>C, Pelles C, Watcom C
)ialects Cyclone, ?ni@ed Parallel C, .plitAC, Cilk, CB
'nCuenced by * (*CPL, CPL), ,L62L DE,0" ,ssembly, PL3', F2&T&,-
'nCuenced -umerousF ,<PL, ,W$, csh, CGG, CAA, CH, 2b=ecti(eAC, *itC, ),
6o, &ust, 1a(a, 1a(a.cript, Limbo, LPC, Perl, PIP, Pike, Processing, Python,
.eed9, >erilog (I)L)7"
2. CrossAplatform (multiAplatform)
Filename eJtension(s) .c, .h
C Programming at Wikibooks
'n computing, C (3KsiL3, as in the letter C) is a generalApurpose programming
language initially de(eloped by )ennis &itchie bet;een !8D8 and !890 at
,T%T *ell Labs.M"D" Like most imperati(e languages in the ,L62L tradition,
C has facilities for structured programming and allo;s leJical (ariable scope
and recursion, ;hile a static type system pre(ents many unintended
operations. 'ts design pro(ides constructs that map eNciently to typical
machine instructions, and therefore it has found lasting use in applications
that had formerly been coded in assembly language, most notably system
soft;are like the ?niJ computer operating system.9"
C is one of the most ;idely used programming languages of all time,E"8"
and C compilers are a(ailable for the ma=ority of a(ailable computer
architectures and operating systems.
<any later languages ha(e borro;ed directly or indirectly from C, including ),
6o, &ust, 1a(a, 1a(a.cript, Limbo, LPC, CH, 2b=ecti(eAC, Perl, PIP, Python,
>erilog (hard;are description language),7" and ?niJOs C shell. These
languages ha(e dra;n many of their control structures and other basic
features from C. <ost of them (;ith Python being the most dramatic
eJception) are also (ery syntactically similar to C in general, and they tend to
combine the recogniPable eJpression and statement syntaJ of C ;ith
underlying type systems, data models, and semantics that can be radically
diQerent. CGG and 2b=ecti(eAC started as compilers that generated C code+
CGG is currently nearly a superset of C,!:" ;hile 2b=ecti(eAC is a strict
superset of C.!!"!5"!0"
*efore there ;as an oNcial standard for C, many users and implementors
relied on an informal speci@cation contained in a book by )ennis &itchie and
*rian $ernighan+ that (ersion is generally referred to as #$%&# C. 'n !8E8 the
,merican -ational .tandards 'nstitute published a standard for C (generally
called #,-.' C# or #CE8#). The neJt year, the same speci@cation ;as
appro(ed by the 'nternational 2rganiPation for .tandardiPation as an
international standard (generally called #C8:#). '.2 later released an
eJtension to the internationaliPation support of the standard in !88M, and a
re(ised standard (kno;n as #C88#) in !888. The current (ersion of the
standard (no; kno;n as #C!!#) ;as appro(ed in )ecember 5:!!.!7"