What are the Importance of C Programming Language | Advantages, Disadvantages, History and Differences

The C language is a middle-level language that is used in developing system applications and software that can be used in both high-level and low-level languages.

The importance of C Programming language grew over a span of time as it was capable of developing system software and operating system.

The C language is also called “Mother Language”. 

The C Programming Language is a procedural-oriented language that was primarily developed to create system applications and operating systems as it was capable of interacting directly with the hardware.

With the use of C, language programmers can easily develop operating systems, kernels, system software, device drivers, and compilers.

What is C LANGUAGE?

The C language is one of the oldest computer programming languages designed and developed nearly 50 years ago.

The languages which are developed after C are inspired directly by the c language.

The C language is a computer programming language used to create software, desktop applications, operating systems, etc. 

The C language is one of the most popular programming languages of all time, due to its simplicity and easy-to-understand features and functions it is used and utilized on global platforms.

Dennis Ritchie developed the C language in 1972 at AT & T Bell Laboratories, where it was first used to develop operating systems.
What is C LANGUAGE ?
What is C Language

C language is a middle-level language in which high-level English words are used.

It is a user-friendly language and very easy to use and implement. Therefore, C language is used in application programming and system programming.

It is a general-purpose programming language that can write and compile any form of program.

C is also called structured programming language because all codes in it are grouped into different blocks organized from top to bottom.

History of C Programming Language

It was introduced in 1958 that ALGOL (Algorithmic Language) was the first computer programming language.

By then, all other languages had been inspired by it.

Martin Richards created the Basic Combined Programming Language (BPCL) in 1967, which was developed to develop system software.

A new language was created in 1969 by Ken Thompson based on BCPL and was given the name B language.

BPCL and B were both typeless languages, there were no data types, and every type of memory was allocated to the same type. 

In 1972 Dennis M. Ritchie introduced the C language used for Unix OS.

C is derived from ALGOL, BCPL, and B, but there is a data type feature. 

ANSI (American National Standard Institute) team defined C language in 1983; for this work, they took 6 years in 1989.

Their approved version name was given name as ANSI C. In 1990 International Standard Organization approved C language, which was named C89.

Importance of C Language

A program can be written in C since it includes a robust data typeset and many sets of operators.

The wide variety of data types and operators makes C programming efficient.

C is both a high-level language and an assembly language, thus enabling it to write both system software and applications.

C is a portable programming language, so it can be run on another if you write a program on one computer.

10 Importance of C Programming Language

  • C language predefined instruction has a list that follows step by step. Typical C programs use multiple methods to accomplish a task.
  • OOP allows developers to create objects that can be used to solve complex and tedious problems.
  • Modern programming languages like PYTHON, JAVA, and PHP have more advanced features compared to c language but they lack performance as they have to perform multiple tasks with additional processing which breaks down their speed, and execution time, therefore they perform poorly compared to C.
  • The C programming can directly interact with hardware, so the programmer can code that can command hardware to perform according to programmers’ requirements, which is not possible in high-level languages like PYTHON and PHP.
  • The C programs are highly portable and can be executed anywhere as it is platform independent. Therefore the tagline is popular “Write Once and Compile Anywhere”.
  • There are built-in functions and code which are called “Predefined Functions” that are readily available and can be used anywhere in the programs which make the program work more swiftly and also avoid writing more lengthy codes to accomplish certain task and operations.
  • These functions are called “Libraries” and can be used in programs, also called “Modularity”.
  • There are numerous such libraries that are built in to solve common problems like math.h function is used to solve mathematical-related problems and stdio.h used to print output using printf() function.
  • C is faster than dynamically typed languages.
  • C is used in system programming or photo editing software or video editing software and operating systems.

5 Advantages of C Programming Languages

  • C is an easy and simple language that is easy to use, and the written code in C is fast, meaning that the language is fast to execute.
  • C is structured programming, and in C, we create functions and manage our code well.
  • There are 32 reserved keywords in C, which means they can’t be used for other purposes.
  • The C language is considered to be a middle-level language that helps developers and programmers to develop applications and software that are compatible with both high-level and low-level.
  • The execution and compilation of codes are faster compared to any other programming language. Therefore it has replaced their counterparts easily.
  • The C programming language is considered to be the second fastest language, as number one is assembly language.
  • Applications created in the C language have a high-speed processing rate as well as low execution time which makes applications load faster compared to others.

5 Disadvantages of C Programming Languages

  • The major disadvantage of C programming language is the inability to check program and code runtime.
  • C is unable to identify the type of variable.
  • Reusability of any defined variable is not supported in C language also exception handling is not done on runtime.
  • C language is a procedural-oriented language therefore does not support object-oriented programming like classes, objects, and interfaces.

What is the use of C Language in daily life?

C program is used to design browsers, software systems, games, and apps like snake, ludo, bouncing ball, minesweeper, etc.

With the help of C language, we can create other programming languages by using the OOPs concept there are some languages like C#, D, java, Limbo, JavaScript, PHP, and Python.   

Programming Language Launched Date & Uses

#Programming LanguageUsesLaunched Year
1CDevice Drivers and Operating System1972
2C++Games, Video, and Picture Editing Software.1985
3PythonArtificial Intelligence and Machine learning1991
4PHPApplication Development, Software.1995
5.NETDesktop Software and Application Software.2001
6JAVAEnterprise Application Development1996
7JavaScriptRich Interactive Web Applications1995
8JqueryIt is a framework of javascript used to add extra functionality to webpages.2006
9SQLDatabase Management1979

Who Developed C Language?

Dennis Macalister Ritchie was an American computer scientist. He designed and developed C programming language in 1972 at AT&T Bell Laboratories.

It was developed to use in the UNIX operating system earlier in 1967 BPCL named one language to develop system software. 

After that use of BPCL features new language was introduced named B, which is similar to the BPCL language. 

He was born on 9 September 1941, in Bronxville, New York, United States and left the world on 12 th October 2011, in New Jersey, United States.

He was considered a genius of his time and received several prestigious awards like Turing Award, Japan Prize for Information and Communications.

Is C language Easy to Learn? 

C programming is a prevalent language. This was used to create software and applications. 

This is a very basic and easy programming language that was known. It is very easy to learn and implement as the words which are used in the C language are English words.

Top 5 Differences Between C and C++

#C ProgrammingC++ Programming
1C language is a procedure-oriented language programming languageC++ is an object-oriented programming language that combines both.
2C is not a virtual functionC++ has a virtual function.
3C program approach top-downC++ approach bottom-up.
4In C language namespace is not availableNamespace is available.
5C does not have an inheritanceC++, inheritance is available
6C is a middle-level languageC++ is a high-level language.

Uses of C Programming Languages

#C Programming Uses
1Operating Systems
2Language Compilers
3Assemblers
4Text Editors
5Print Spoolers
6Network Drivers
7Modern Programs
8Databases
9Language Interpreters
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Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]

How Can I learn C Programming Online?

There are various YouTube channels as well as websites that offer free C programming courses.

C Programming Before Called As?

The BCPL language was modified and developed into B language and later the most powerful language was developed by enhancing the existing features and named C language.

What is C known as?

C programming is known as the “Mother Language”.

Who is the Father of C language?

Dennis Macalister Ritchie is known as the father of the C language.

Is C or C++ Better?

According to me, C++ is more advanced as it is an object-oriented language that uses the OOPs concept.

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