C Background
C is a structured programming language,also known as function orientated programming language.
C language was developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972 at Bell Laboratories in USA.
In short:- (AT & T).
The research was started in 1968, by Dennis Ritchie on programming languages like BCPL and CPL.
à The main aim of his research was to develop a new language to create an OS called UNIX. After 4 years of research, he create a new programming language with solutions for drawbacks in languages like BCPL & CPL. In the year of 1972, this language was introduced with the name “Traditional C”.
Most of the
features of ‘c’ was derived from BCPL (B language) , so the name ‘c’ was taken
from the sequence of previous language ‘B’ (BCPL).
The first outcome of the c language was UNIX operating system. The initial UNIX
OS was completely developed using ‘c’ programming language.
The founder of the ‘C’ language, Dennis Ritchie is known as “Father of C”
and also “Father of UNIX”.
Programming language ‘C’ is a very
popular programming language, because it is reliable, simple and easy to use
and it is the base for almost all the other programming languages.
There are some language that comes before ‘c’ and also some various version of ‘c’.
These are:-
- CPL (Common Programming Language):-
In the early 1960’s, the CPL language was invented by Martin Richards at Cambridge University. early of 1960’s.
2. BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language)
The BCPL was invented by Martin Richards at Cambridge University in 1966. It became very popular programming language at that time. It allows the user, direct access to the computer memory. BCPL is the extension of CPL.
3. B Language
B language is derived from BCPL. In 1969 , it was introduced by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratory, USA. The B language is similar to the BCPL.
4. C Language
C language is derived from B language. It was introduced in the year of 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratory, USA. The C language was mainly developed to create a operating system called UNIX. 90 % of the UNIX operating system code is written in C language. In a very short period of time, C language became very popular programming language. Many universities and organizations began to create their own version of C language for their respective projects. So C language has got many variants at that time. Later it was standardized.
5. ANSI C (C89)
In 1983, the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) formed a committee to frame standard specifications for the C language. In the year of 1989, this committee introduced a standard version of C with the name “ANSI C” with standard library files. In short ‘The ANSI C’ is known as C89.
6. C90
In the year of 1990, the ANSI C was got ISO (Inter
national Organization for Standardization) standardization with the inclusion of few new features like new library files, new processor commands. And it was also added with keywords const, volatile and signed etc… ISO standardized the ANSI C as ISO/IEC 9899:1990. This version is called as C90 in short form.
7. C99
In the year of 1995, many new features were added to the C90 to create a new version of it. This new version of C was got ISO standardization in the year of 1999 with the name ISO/IEC 9899:1999. In the short form it is called as C99. Later C99 became the official standard version of C.
