C (programming language)

C is the name of a procedural, imperative programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories. It was a major improvement over the earlier languages BCPL and B.

C is still a popular choice for projects where speed and small program size are important considerations, such as embedded firmware. A significant portion of the Linux kernel was written in C. The syntax of C inspired many later languages such as C++, Java and C Sharp. Many C compilers also support low-level programming via integrated inline assemblers.

## "Hello World!" program[edit]

An example program often used for languages is something that displays "Hello, World!".

#include <stdio.h>

int main()

printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;

## See also[edit]

Free compiler
Open Watcom C Compiler, high quality free C/C++ compiler.
Miracle C compiler, free c/c++ compiler.
lcc, portable C compiler, free for non-commercial use.