LEARNINGS OF THE WEEK (TAGARO)

LEARNINGS OF THE WEEK

By: Sharra Mae S. Tagaro IV- Rizal

This week, I learned about the facts about C language.

• B was developed in the year 1970 by Ken Thompson. The said language is a successor of Basic Command Programming Language (BCPL), which was developed by Martin Richards.

• C was originally developed under UNIX environment running in DEC PDP-11.

• C stands for Combined Programming Language and sometimes called System Programming Language (SPL).

• It did not become immediately popular after its creation. It took almost six years when many people read and learned the usefulness of the language after Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie created a famous book called “THE C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE”.

• X3J11 committee was created in the year 1983 under the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) to provide machine definition of the language and was than approved in 1989.

• Input commands, output commands, and special words often referred to as reserved words allow the use of lower case only.

• They should be written in lower case since C is sensitive to those words. They have only 32 keywords (27 from Kernighan and Ritchie standard and 5 added by the ANSI Standardization Committee.

• C was initially used for system development work, in particular the programs that make up the operating system.

• C is used mainly because it produces codes that run as fast as codes written in assembly language.

• These are some of the uses of C:C is used as an Operating system;Language compilers;Assemblers;Text editors;Print spoolers;Network devices;Modern programs;Databases;Language Interpreters; and Utilities.

• A simple core language, such as math functions or file handling provided by a standard set of library routines.

• Focus on procedural programming paradigm which facilitates for programming in a structured style.

• Parameters are always passed by value, never by reference.

• C encourages the creation of libraries user-defined functions.

• C is flexible when it allows unrestricted conversion of data from one type to another, such as conversion of a character to its numeric equivalent.

Well I guess that is all i have learned about C. But don't you worry there are many more facts about C that our teacher will teach us.

I also learned about flowcharting and its basic control structures.

• Flowcharting- A common method for defining the logical steps of flow within a program by using a series of symbols to identify the basic input, process and output function within a program.

• A two-dimensional representation of an algorithm; the predefined graphic symbols of a flowchart are used to indicates the various operations and the flow of control .

• Algorithm- a finite set of instructions that specify a sequence of operations to be carried out in order to solve a specific problem or class of problems.

• There are many basic symbols used in flowcharting.

• Basic control structures: Sequence- A process executed from one to another in a straightforward manner. Selection- A choice is provided between alternatives. Repetition- This structure provides for the repetitive execution of an operation or routine while the condition is true. The condition is evaluated before executing any process statement. As long as the condition is true, the process is executed, otherwise, control flows out of the structure.