History of C Language
Origins and Development:
- Developed by: Dennis Ritchie
- Year: 1972
- Place: Bell Labs (AT&T), USA
- Purpose: To develop the UNIX operating system
Background:
- Predecessor: B Language (developed by Ken Thompson in 1969)
- Influences: BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) and B
- C was influenced by BCPL and B, meaning its design, syntax, and concepts were inspired by these earlier languages. It was developed by refining and improving the ideas and concepts of BCPL and B.
- Key Contributions:
- Introduced structured programming concepts.
- Structured Programming Concepts (e.g., Functions, Loops, and Conditionals like if-else, for, while, and switch, etc.)
- Allowed low-level access to memory while being more readable than assembly language.
- Low-Level Access – Can directly interact with memory and hardware.
- Only low-level languages (Machine Language and Assembly) are truly close to hardware and have low-level access. While C is officially a high-level language, it retains many low-level capabilities, such as direct memory access, allowing hardware interaction and efficient memory management. C has both high-level and low-level features, which is why it’s often called a “middle-level” language.
- Became the foundation for many modern programming languages.
- The syntax and concepts of the C language have been used to develop many modern programming languages (C++, Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, Go (Golang), Rust). These languages were built using C’s combination of simplicity, efficiency, and low-level hardware control.
- Introduced structured programming concepts.
Milestones in C Language Development:
| Year | Event | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Dennis Ritchie develops C at Bell Labs. | |
| 1978 | Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie publish The C Programming Language (K&R C). | The C Programming Language” is a book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie in 1978. This book is also known as “K&R C” (due to the initials of the authors) “Kernighan & Ritchie C”. |
| 1983 | ANSI (American National Standards Institute) begins standardizing C. | In 1983, ANSI (American National Standards Institute) began standardizing the C language to create a consistent and portable version (portable means something that can run on different platforms without modification). Before this, there was no official standard for C, and each compiler used slightly different versions (This means that C code written on one platform or compiler might not work correctly on another because each compiler implemented C slightly differently). |
| 1989 | ANSI C (C89) is officially released. | In 1989, ANSI released C89 (ANSI C), which became the first officially standardized version of C. C89 (ANSI C) is a standardized version that can run on different platforms. ANSI created an official standard for C to ensure that C programs are portable, meaning they can run easily on different systems or compilers. |
| 1990 | ISO (International Organization for Standardization) adopts C (ISO C). | ISO (International Organization for Standardization) adopted C, which is known as ISO C. ANSI released the C89 standard in 1989, but for international acceptance, ISO adopted this standard in 1990 and named it ISO C (C90). ISO C ensured C programs could run consistently across different systems! |
| 1999 | C99 standard introduces new features like inline functions and variable-length arrays. | The C99 Standard (1999) introduced new features that made C programming more powerful and flexible. C99 addressed modern programming needs, making C more efficient and powerful. |
| 2011 | C11 standard adds multi-threading support and improved security. | The C11 Standard (2011) introduced multi-threading support and improved security in C programming. C11 made C more powerful and safer by leveraging modern hardware and multi-core processors! |
| 2018 | C17 (minor update) is released. | C17 (2018) was a minor update that mainly focused on bug fixes and stability improvements in C11. The main goal of C17 was to make C11 more stable and reliable, providing a dependable version for long-term use. |
Why C Became Popular?
✔ Used to build UNIX OS, making it influential.
✔ Powerful yet simple, allowing low-level programming.
✔ Portable across different hardware platforms.
✔ Basis for modern programming languages like C++, Java, and Python.