C Programming

We will provide an overview of the fundamentals of the C programming language. For certain topics universal to all programming languages, some programming experience is assumed and there is only an example of the C syntax with a brief explanation. In addition to this document, we recommend reading parts of “The C Programming Language” by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. You can find a pdf of this book on the Google Drive in /Instrumentation/Literature. This book describes all the features of C in great detail and is suitable for all levels of programming experience.

So, what makes C different than other programming languages?

Well, one thing is that it’s not an object oriented programming language like Java or C++ or a whole lot of other programming languages. In addition to that, C is considered a relatively low level programming language since most C operations can be moderately easily translated into assembly. Because of this, C is a great choice for developing software that interfaces directly with hardware. Another unique part of C is pointers and dynamic memory allocation. C allows its programmers to have a generous amount of control over the computer’s memory.