History And Evolution of C
General-purpose what C is. Bell Laboratories, commonly known as AT&T’s Bell Laboratories of USA or AT&T Bell Laboratories (USA), is where Dennis Ritchie first invented it. While some sources claim it started in 1970, others place the development in the early 1970s, naming 1972 and 1973 in particular.
The development of C wasn’t a vacuum; BCPL and B, two previous programming languages, had a big impact. Martin Richards created BCPL, or “Basic Combined Programming Language,” a typeless systems programming language, in 1967. The BCPL elements were modelled by Ken Thompson for his B language. Early iterations of the UNIX operating system were developed by Thompson at Bell Laboratories in 1970 using B. B was limited, so C was created or developed to get around it. Ritchie dubbed his expanded form of B “New B” at first, but as it became more variable, he changed the name to C. One of the main differences between B and BCPL was that, in contrast to its typeless predecessors, C included typing.
A PDP-11 running UNIX was the intended platform for C. C is regarded as the native language of UNIX, having been initially employed as the operating system’s systems language. Also created at Bell Laboratories, the UNIX operating system used C as its primary programming language. C is used to implement almost all operating system kernels, and it is also used to write many of the most popular operating systems available today, such as Linux, parts of Microsoft Windows, and Google’s Android.
At first, C became well-known as the UNIX operating system’s programming language. The 1978 release of Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie’s “The C Programming Language” marked a turning point in its history. This book established the language as a de facto standard and brought it widespread notice. Commonly, the description found in this book is called “K&R C.”
C changed to what is currently known as “traditional C” by the late 1970s. The void type and enumeration types were added, and additional enhancements were made. Because programmers favoured C over more recent languages like Pascal and APL or more traditional ones like FORTRAN or PL/I, its popularity expanded without any promotion during that time. It was popular due of its adaptability and number of portable C compilers.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) organised a committee (X3J11) to standardise C in 1983 due to its popularity and need for a clearer, more comprehensive definition. ISO/IEC 9899:1990 was the committee’s first formal ANSI standard definition, adopted in 1989. Additional names for this standard are C89 and C90. In general, the ANSI standard improved the precision of the language specification and included features like function prototypes. ANSI C11 (2011), often referred to as ISO/IEC 9899:2011, and C18 are examples of further standards that have been adopted since then.
C’s design ideas define the architecture. Bytes, addresses, and other machine-level ideas are accessible through its proximity to the machine. Since it possesses characteristics of both low-level and high-level languages, it is also known as a middle-level language, however this has led to its classification as a low-level language. As a permissive language, it was created with performance in mind and gives programmers a great deal of flexibility.
It is also said that C is a small language that mostly uses a “library” of built-in functions. Reusing existing functions is a component of the software reuse idea. Both structured and modular programming are supported by C. Because of its adaptability and broad range of applications, the language has been used for many years in a variety of fields.
C continues to impact several contemporary programming languages. C is regarded as the foundation or basis for Java and C++. Bjarne Stroustrup began working on C++, formerly known as C with Classes, at Bell Laboratories in 1979. It is regarded as an extension. Java takes concepts from C and C++. The essential influence that C has had on the development of programming languages throughout the years is demonstrated by this lineage.