History of C Programming Language: Evolution and Impact

Introduction

1. C is a programming language which born at “AT & T’s Bell Laboratory” of USA in 1972.
2. C was written by Dennis Ritchi, thats why he is also called as father of c programming language.
3. C language was created for a specific purpose i.e designing the UNIX operating system (which is currently base of many UNIX based OS).
4. From the beginning, C was intended to be useful to allow busy programmers to get things done because C is such a powerful, dominant and supple language
5. Its use quickly spread beyond Bell Labs in the late 70’s because of its  long list of strong features

Why was Name "C" given to Language?

1. Many of C’s principles and ideas were derived from the earlier language B. (Ken Thompson was the developer of B Language.)
2. BCPL and CPL are the earlier ancestors of B Language
3. CPL is common Programming Language.In 1967, BCPL Language ( Basic CPL ) was created as a scaled down version of CPL
4. As many of the features were derived from “B” Language thats why it was named as “C”.
5. After 7-8 years C++ came into existence which was first example of object oriented programming .

Pictorial Summary of C Programming Language History

Summary of C Programming Language History

C Programming Language Timeline

Key Point to Remember

1. The C language is a structure oriented programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie.
2. The C language is belonging to a middle-level programming language.
3. Operating system programs such as Windows, Unix, Linux are written in C language.
4. C89/C90 and C99 are two standardized editions of C language.
5. C has been written in assembly language.