Talk:C (programming language)

first comments

hi, it is ritchie and kernigan who developed it, Bjarne Stroustroup did create a subset now called C++. Robert Tito | Talk 11:45, 23 February 2007 (CST)

C++ is not a subset of C. It is (at least mostly) a superset of C89. C99 has new features that are in part taken back from C++ and in part new to C and not (yet) included in C++. Phil Howard 10:48, 24 February 2007 (CST)

Thanks, adding right now.

Is C low-level? AFAIK, it is a mid-level language. --Rion 18:22, 23 February 2007 (CST)

In terms of language feature and design, C could rightly be considered a mid-level language. However (and this is my opinion), it should today be more classified at a lower level, perhaps called "bottom of mid-level or top of low-level". The reason I hold this opinion about C is because more and more of higher level programming that in years (or decades) past might have been done in C are now being done in other languages at a higher level, such as Python. Phil Howard 11:06, 24 February 2007 (CST)

Is it ok, if C will be one of the branches of programming languages? as well as any other progr. lang of course. It will unite every language we can come up with for computers. If you like it, add your name as one of the authors please. Robert Tito | Talk 14:34, 24 February 2007 (CST)

A standard programming language

Could we find a better term than the "is considered a standard programming language" mentioned in the article? Or we need to write an own article what a "standard programming language" is. Except for the fact that C was standardized (which is seemingly not meant as then the "is considered" would be wrong) I think that such a classification is a bit subjective and especially runs the danger of becoming obsolete with time.

There might be also another statement which might be a bit out-dated: "it is the most commonly used programming language for writing system software, though it is also widely used for writing applications". I don't known about system software but is C really still widely used for writing applications? I would have thought it being mostly replaced by OOPL and scripting languages for that by now.

--Markus Baumeister 17:36, 25 February 2007 (CST)

standard?

so far many middleware solutions are build using C, sometimes lending some C++ classing hierarchies. Main reason: it needs being able to talk to EPCDIC-datastructures as well as on the front end to browser based interfases. C is easy to combine with assembler as well as java (and interfases with the majority of the scrintings languages as php/perl etc). contrary to common believe visual studio is not as popular as m$ might want us to believe. Even in redmont for times they used codewarrior in stead of VS to develop new versions of software, specially since the introduction of VS6 and .NET studio. In that period m$-MAC BU developed their solutions solely using codewarrior. Now they cross compile using Xcode as well as GCC. Robert Tito | Talk

GNOME + OSes

Well, most of the GNOME software is written in C. We should maybe note that its derivates are more popular in software writing (C# for Microsoft, ObjC for OS X, C++ for Haiku and so on...) --Rion 07:48, 26 February 2007 (CST)

What's up with the "Vista"? What's the point of inclusion? --Rion 12:57, 2 March 2007 (CST)

if windows is a name, so is vista Robert Tito | Talk 13:29, 2 March 2007 (CST)

But it says Linux, Mac OS X and Windows in general, I mean, XP, 2k et al use derivatives of C too. --Rion 13:47, 2 March 2007 (CST) FYI, GNOME is an open source project (sourceforge) using GCC 3.2 and higher. The same applies for GIMP. C is indeed a low to high level programming language due to its resemblance to assembler and its bit oriented programming capacities - many have been forgotten by all in one solutions like studio and xcode. Robert Tito | Talk 14:14, 2 March 2007 (CST)

Syntax example

Here's my suggestion for a somewhat more complex example in the Syntax section. What do you think about it?

#include <stdio.h>	

int main() {
   int age;
  
   printf("Please enter your age: ");
   scanf("%d", &age);
      if(age < 18) {
        printf("You are not an adult.\n");
      }
      else if(age > 18) {
        printf("You are an adult.\n");
      }
   return 0;
}

Something about Unix

Something could be said in the "history of C" that it was basically developed at the same time as Unix... B was around, then C was developed, then Unix was rewritten in C specifically to make Unix more portable (portability was something revolutionary at the time... OSes were usually written in Assembly). I'll add something about the "history of C" when I get off work --Eric M Gearhart 06:05, 8 April 2007 (CDT)

in use

C is still in use can be omitted. the 30 years is irrelevant. At this moment over 80% of all compiled compuyter programs that are in use have been programmed in COBOL. Nobody refers to that - so the 30 years here are totally irrelevant - 1972 creation, 2007 now they can do the calculation. Robert Tito |  Talk  16:41, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

Derivatives of C section removed (explaining here)

I removed the following:

==Derivatives==
C has spawned many derivatives, including [[C++]], [[Objective-C]], 
and [[C#]], which are commonly used in programming applications for 
[[Linux]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and other 
operating systems.

It is not accurate to call these language derivative of C. All these languages are object-oriented, whereas C is limited to procedural. What these languages do have in common is that they've kept the same syntax style and scope rules, and I have explained that in the opening paragraphs of the article. For example, these languages are all case-sensitive, require semi-colons after statements, segregate code into blocks by means of curly braces, and use automatic or temporary variably scoping within a block. But this syntax is superficial in nature; the underlying capabilities of these languages is far different than for C.Pat Palmer 22:50, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

the point is however they started from C and turned that solution in a superset of C, adding functionality. see for instance gcc/g++. Robert Tito |  Talk  23:15, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

Variants

The article should list the variants of "C". C90 and C99 are the main standards, but there are also pre-C90 versions of "C". 04:26, 26 July 2008 (CDT)

Ancestry

Rather than argue about what was inspired by C, I thought it would be useful to detail its ancestry. Howard C. Berkowitz 11:34, 26 July 2008 (CDT)