COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1 Page 1 of 15

Overview of the Turbo C Language

2.1 History of C Language
Set Theory
C is a general-purpose, high-level language that was
originally developed by Dennis M. Ritchie to develop the UNIX
operating system at Bell Labs. C was originally first implemented
on the DEC PDP-11 computer in 1972.

In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie produced the first

publicly available description of C, now known as the K&R
standard.

The UNIX operating system, the C compiler, and essentially all

UNIX application programs have been written in C. C has now
become a widely used professional language for various reasons −

 Easy to learn
 Structured language
 It produces efficient programs
 It can handle low-level activities
 It can be compiled on a variety of computer platforms

2.2 Facts about C

 C was invented to write an operating system called UNIX.

 C is a successor of B language which was introduced
around the early 1970s.
 The language was formalized in 1988 by the American
National Standard Institute (ANSI).
 The UNIX OS was totally written in C.
 Today C is the most widely used and popular System
Programming Language.
 Most of the state-of-the-art software have been
implemented using C.
 Today's most popular Linux OS and RDBMS MySQL
have been written in C.
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Overview of the Turbo C Language

2.3 Uses of C Set Theory

C was initially used for system development work, particularly the programs that make-up the
operating system. C was adopted as a system development language because it produces code that runs
nearly as fast as the code written in assembly language. Some examples of the use of C might be −

 Operating Systems
 Language Compilers
 Assemblers
 Text Editors
 Print Spoolers
 Network Drivers
 Modern Programs
 Databases
 Language Interpreters
 Utilities

C Programs
A C program can vary from 3 lines to millions of lines and
it should be written into one or more text files with extension ".c";
for example, hello.c.

Why Program in C Language?

Here are the advantages of C:

C is a small language, yet powerful.

It has only 32 keywords (or reserved words), which are the

commands that make up the C Language. Turbo C contains 11
more keywords to support various enhancements and extensions.
For comparison, BASIC for the IBM PC contains 159 keywords.

C is the native language of UNIX.

UNIX is the major interactive operating system on workstations, servers, and mainframes. C is the
standard development language for personal computers. Most Windows applications, database programs,
graphics libraries, and other large application are written in C.

C code is very portable.

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Overview of the Turbo C Language

This means, C is capable of running on more than one computer system or under more than one
operating system. It is easy to get a program written in C on one machine to run on a different machine.
Set Theory
You can easily transfer application programs written in C from one system to another. C is portable mainly
because the actual language definition is very small. There are very few features built into C, but using
functions, you can expand the language. The C language does not even have built-in routines for printing to
the screen or reading from the keyboard. However, there are standard functions for these and other tasks
which are supplied with the C compiler. C programs use a standard library that works the same in all
machines. These libraries allow programmers to build programs that can run in any machine that has these
libraries.

C is a structured language.

C emphasizes structured programming. In this style of programming, a complex program is broken

down into subprograms, each of which can be coded and tested individually. The various programs need
not even be programmed by the same programmer.

C is a “middle-level language”.

Although C cannot beat assembly language at producing code that is highly compact and tuned, it
is the language that probably comes closest to keeping up with assembly language. C has a powerful set of
operators that allows the direct manipulation of bit, bytes, words, and pointers. Using C, a programmer can
produce programs that are as efficient as those written in assembly language while still enjoying the
usefulness of high-level language.

C is the foundation for C++ and Java.

Though C is often criticized to have a complicated syntax since it can allow the multiple use of
some symbols such as “*” and “=”, yet this same feature is what makes C very attractive to power
programmers. C is an elegant language. Many of the constructs and methodologies that are routinely used
in C are also used by C++ and Java programs. Thus, learning C can be considered a first step in learning
C++ and Java, which both support object-oriented programming (OOP).

We had just finished the discussion on Overview of the Turbo C

Language. Let’s move on to the next higher level of activities or exercises
that demonstrates your potential skills/knowledge of what you have
learned.
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Overview of the Turbo C Language

Set Theory