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‎.mdlintrc‎

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‎book/SUMMARY.md‎

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* [Conclusion](languages/perl/conclusion.md)
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* [C](languages/c/README.md)
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* [Introduction](languages/c/intro.md)
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* [History](languages/c/history.md)
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* [Advantages](languages/c/advantages.md)
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* [Disadvantages](languages/c/disadvantages.md)
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* [Conclusion](languages/c/conclusion.md)
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## End
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* [Credits](credits.md)

‎book/languages/c/README.md‎

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# Welcome
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> This chapter has been authored by Krzysztof Szewczyk "Παλαιολόγος".
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Welcome to the C chapter! I'd like to let you know a bit more about second most popular language.

‎book/languages/c/advantages.md‎

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# Advantages
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There are a lot of programmers that think C is not language worth learning. Let's review this. C was originally developed for
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the UNIX operating system by Dennis Ritchie. It's quite simple, is not tied to any particular hardware or operating system. **If
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some platform has C compiler, it's worth attention**. C is really general purpose language, so this way **it's so common**. This
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makes **it easier to write programs that will run without any changes on practically all machines that have POSIX compiliant
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API's**. The C language is a middle-level language as it combines the elements of high-level languages (structures, unions,
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enums, functions, conditionals) with the functionalism of assembly language. **It's possible to simulate OOP in C and write an
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operating system. C allows the manipulation of nearly everything** giving the programmer more control over exactly how the
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program will behave and more direct access to the mechanics of the underlying hardware, **while keeping application fully
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portable**. C is often quoted as cross-platform assembly. **C is still one of the most popular programming languages out there
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[at the time of writing it was 2nd language overall](https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/). Overall, C was first most common
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language from 1988 to 2013! It's Popularity is still growing. In the year of writing, C had the highest rise in ratings in a
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year.** C is everywhere. Your keyboard is very propably powered by C, same as your fridge or even modem. **Microsoft Windows was
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developed in C and has nearly 90% market share. Same as Linux, MacOS, iOS, Android and Windows Phone.** The world’s most popular
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databases, including **Oracle Database, MySQL, MS SQL Server, and PostgreSQL are developed in C**. 3D movies are created with
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applications that are generally written in C and C++. The alarm clock that wakes you up is likely programmed in C. Then you use
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your microwave or coffee maker to make your breakfast. They are also embedded systems and therefore are probably programmed in
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C. You turn on your TV or radio while you eat your breakfast. Those are also embedded systems, powered by C. When you open your
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garage door with the remote control you are also using an embedded system that is most likely programmed in C. You park your
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car, go to the shop and use vending machine to get a soda. What language did they use to program this vending machine? Probably
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C. Then you buy something at the store. The cash register is also programmed in C. And when you pay with your credit card? The
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credit card reader is, again, likely programmed in C. **There are many programming languages, today, that allow developers to be
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more productive than with C for different kinds of projects. There are higher level languages that provide much larger built-in
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libraries that simplify working with JSON, XML, UI, web pages, client requests, database connections, media manipulation, and so
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on. But despite that, there are plenty of reasons to believe that C programming will remain active for a long time.** In
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programming languages one size does not fit all. Here are some reasons that C is unbeatable, and almost mandatory, for certain
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applications. **Arbitrary memory address access and pointer arithmetic is an important feature that makes C a perfect fit for
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system programming (operating systems and embedded systems).** **A common language feature that system programming cannot rely
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on it's garbage collection, or even just dynamic allocation for some embedded systems. Embedded applications are very limited in
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time and memory resources. They are often used for real-time systems, where a non-deterministic call to the garbage collector
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cannot be afforded. And if dynamic allocation cannot be used because of the lack of memory, it is very important to have other
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mechanisms of memory management, like placing data in custom addresses, as C pointers allow.** Languages that depend heavily on
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dynamic allocation and garbage collection wouldn’t fit for resource-limited systems. **C has a very small runtime. And the
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memory footprint for its code is smaller than for most other languages.** When compared to C++, for example, a C-generated
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binary that goes to an embedded device is about half the size of a binary generated by similar C++ code. One of the main causes
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for that is exceptions support. Exceptions are a great tool added by C++ over C, and, if not triggered and smartly implemented,
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they have practically no execution time overhead (but at the cost of increasing the code size). **C is a lingua franca for
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developers. Many implementations of new algorithms in books or on the internet are first (or only) made available in C by their
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authors.** This gives the maximum possible portability for the implementation. I’ve seen programmers struggling on the internet
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to rewrite a C algorithm to other programming languages because he or she didn’t know very basic concepts of C.
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## The Illuminati doesn't run the world. C programmers do!

‎book/languages/c/conclusion.md‎

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# Conclusion
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C is excellent language for embedded development. It's mixture of lower level programming, which is possible in C (see BIOS
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implemented in C; Linux kernel was implemented in C too), but also higher level programming - there is theoretical possibility of
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OOP simulation in C, getting rid of the part where C is not shining.
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One thing is sure - **nothing, ever** will replace C. C will remain ruling IT world, **[forever](https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/)**.

‎book/languages/c/disadvantages.md‎

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# Disadvantages
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C has no support for closures, no guaranteed support of tail calls
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There is no way to portably inspect the call stack. Hence, you cannot code something like GNU backtrace or `longjmp`/`setjmp` in
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portable C. Also, coding precise garbage collectors is very painful.
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There is no ABI, every vendor made up their own. Higher level constructs have to be manually created or third-party libraries and
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other solutions used.
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There are no namespaces, so it's easy to pollute global namespace and wreck something up.
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Finally, C doesn't support exceptions and object oriented programming.

‎book/languages/c/history.md‎

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# History
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Back in the day C was closely tied to the UNIX operating system, originally implemented in assembly language on a PDP-7 by Dennis
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Ritchie and Ken Thompson, incorporating several ideas from colleagues. Eventually, they decided to port the operating system to a
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PDP-11. The original PDP-11 version of Unix was developed in assembly language. Thompson needed a programming language for UNIX
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utilities. At first, he tried to make a Fortran compiler, but soon gave up the idea and made a new language B language, Thompson's
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simplified version of BCPL. However, small amount of utilities were made using B, because of it's unsatisfying efficency. Also, B
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could not take advantage of some of the PDP-11's features such as byte addressability.
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In 1972, Ritchie started to improve B, which resulted in creating a new language - C. C compiler and some utilities made were later
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included in Unix. At Version 4 Unix (1973), the kernel was extensively re-implemented in C. By this time, the C language had
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acquired some powerful features.
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Unix was one of the first operating system kernels implemented in a language other than assembly. In around 1977, Ritchie and
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Stephen C. Johnson made further changes to the language to facilitate portability of the Unix operating system. Johnson's Portable
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C Compiler served as the basis for several implementations of C on new platforms.

‎book/languages/c/intro.md‎

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# Introduction
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**C** is a general-purpose, imperative programming language, supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope and
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recursion, with static, weakly enforced type system. C provides constructs that map to machine code, so it has found use in
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applications that had been coded in assembly language before, including operating systems, as well as various software for
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computers.
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C is an imperative procedural language. It was designed to be compiled using simple compiler, to provide low level stuff sufficent
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to replace a few tasks of assembly, and provide higher level language constructs that map efficiently to machine instructions,
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that require minimal run-time support, to increase usability of language.
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Despite its low-level capabilities, the language has wide cross-platform programming capabilities. A C89 program
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that is written with portability in mind can be compiled for a very wide variety of platforms and operating systems with
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few or no changes to its source code. The language has become available on a very wide range of platforms, from embedded
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systems to supercomputers.

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