The C Programming
Language
What is C?
Originally: System programming language for
the UNIX operating system
Today: One of the most dominant
development languages for general purpose
applications, especially for low-level software
Sample C Programs
Hello, world!
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[])
{
printf("Hello, world!\n");
return 0;
}
Sample C Programs
Quicksort
#include <stdio.h>
/* move pivot to the center of the array */
void quicksort(int *array, int start, int end) if (array[start] > array[last_start])
{ start--;
int last_start = start, last_end = end, swap; swap = array[last_start];
array[last_start] = array[start];
/* we do not need to sort zero/one item arrays */ array[start] = swap;
if (start >= end)
return; /* recursively sort array before and after pivot */
quicksort(array, last_start, start - 1);
/* move items greater than pivot to the end */ quicksort(array, start + 1, last_end);
/* and keep items less than pivot at the start */ }
start++;
while (start < end) int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[])
{ {
if (array[start] > array[last_start]) int foo[7] = { 4, 1, 6, 10, 9, 7, 3 };
{ int i;
swap = array[start];
array[start] = array[end]; quicksort(foo, 0, 6);
array[end--] = swap; for (i = 0; i < 7; i++)
} printf("%d\n", foo[i]);
else
start++; return 0;
} }
Real-World C Applications
Most modern operating systems
Kernel – Linux kernel, NT kernel, etc.
Command line processors – bash, csh, cmd.exe, etc.
Native windowing system – X Window System, Windows
Shell
Other utilities – grep, make, etc.
Most modern compilers
GNU Compiler Collection – gcc, g++, etc.
Visual Studio’s base compilers – cl.exe, rc.exe, etc.
Most modern PC and console games
Evolution of C
CPL – Cambridge Programming Language or
Combined Programming Language (1963)
Invented by Christopher Strachey, et al.
Heavily influenced by Algol 60
Too complex to implement on existing computers
BCPL – Basic CPL (1966)
Invented by Martin Richards
Programming language of choice for the Multics
systems in Bell Laboratories
Evolution of C
B Programming Language (1969)
Invented by Ken Thompson
Implemented on a DEC PDP-7 with 8K
18-bit words of memory
Intended as the system implementation
language for UNIX
Revision of an earlier language, “Bon”
Not named after the B in BCPL, but
heavily influenced by it
Evolution of C
BCPL versus B versus C
BCPL and B are both typeless; C has types
Pointers and arrays are both integer indexes to the memory
array
In BCPL: In B: In C:
let v = vec 10 auto v[10]; int v[10];
v!i = 42 v[i] = 42; v[i] = 42;
Evolution of C
NB – New B (1971)
Invented by Dennis Ritchie
On the DEC PDP-11 with 12K 16-bit words
of memory, character data is not accessed
in words but in bytes
Required two distinct data types: int and
char
Floating point arithmetic will also require a
new float data type
NB compiles to native code
Evolution of C
NB versus C
Previously, arrays and pointers are the same, but
Ritchie wanted to implement structures:
struct direntry
{
int inumber;
char name[14];
};
Pointer to an array != actual array in the structure
Inconvenient for reading from disk
Evolution of C
C Programming Language (1972)
Also invented by Ritchie, proper successor to B
In C, arrays are still similar to pointers
Pointer to an array is created only when the array name
is mentioned in an expression
Generalization of pointers:
int i, *pi, **ppi;
int fi(), *fpi(), (*pfi)();
int *api[10], (*pai)[10];
Evolution of C
K&R C – first C standard (1978)
Appeared in The C Programming Language by Brian
Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie
&& and || operators
Previously & and | means both logical and bitwise AND and OR
Unfortunately, precedence was never fixed (to preserve compatibility with B):
if (a & mask == b) /* logical error */
Preprocessor
#include <header.h>
#define MACRO
unsigned, long, union, enum
Type casts
Evolution of C
ANSI C or C89 – first official C standard (1989)
Produced by the ANSI X3J11 working group
Required the types of formal arguments in the type
signature of the function:
In K&R C: In ANSI C:
double sin(); double sin(double);
const, volatile
Ratified a Standard C Library
Should be implemented by all ANSI C-compliant vendors
Evolution of C
ISO/IEC 9899 C90 – second official C standard
(1990)
Exactly the same as C89, with changes to numbering to
reflect ISO practice
ISO/IEC 9899 C99 – current official C standard (1999)
Produced by the ISO/IEC/JTC/SC22/WG14 working group
Added invariant ISO646 and multibyte support extensions
Clarified the existing standard via technical corrigenda:
ISO/IEC 9899 TCOR1 (1995)
ISO/IEC 9899 TCOR2 (1996)
Available at: http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC22/WG14/
Disadvantages of C
Ambiguity in variable use
Type safety (integers versus pointers)
Fence post errors (arrays versus pointers)
Indirection problems
int *fp();
int (*pf)();
int *(*pfp)();
Treats strings as null-terminated character arrays
Finding the length of the string is O(n)
Generally not well-suited for string processing
Disadvantages of C
Memory problems
C itself only provides two types of storage:
automatic (in the stack segment) and static (in the
data segment)
Dynamically allocated storage in the heap
(malloc() and free()) is tedious and error-
prone
Advantages of C
Low-level functionality
Bitwise operators
Pointers
Type looseness
High-level syntax
Abstract enough to describe underlying algorithms
Result: A language that can do practically
everything, is portable to other systems, and runs
as fast as assembly
Advantages of C
Small and simple
Easy to parse; compilers occupy very little memory
Ties with UNIX
Language not designed in isolation, but in a real
environment with emphasis on practicality
Meets the needs of programmers, but does not supply too
much
Compatibility with old programs – C has been remarkably
stable through the years (unlike FORTRAN or Pascal)
Compilers for C
First C compiler, cc, is developed by Dennis
Ritchie
First portable C compiler, pcc, is developed
by Steve Johnson (1978)
Became the reference implementation for K&R C
Currently a ton of compilers available
Mostly because compiler theory classes use a
subset of C for their final project
Compilers for C
Generally available C compilers (also works
for C++):
Borland C++Builder
http://www.borland.com/cbuilder/
Microsoft Visual C++ .NET
http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/
The GNU Compiler Collection
For Linux: http://gcc.gnu.org/
For Windows: http://www.mingw.org/
References
Ritchie, Dennis M. The Development of the C
Language. April 1993. Internet on-line. Available
from <
http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/chist.html> [31
July 2003]
International Standards Organization. 2003. ISO/IEC
JTC1/SC22/WG14 – C. Denmark: International
Standards Organization, 2003 [cited 31 July 2003].
Available from World Wide Web: (
http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC22/WG14/)
