How would you describe c programming to a person that does not know anything about computers?
COKEDUDE 27 Junior Poster in Training
rproffitt 2,662 "Nothing to see here." Moderator
I'd keep it simple. Such as "It's a computer language. For humans they have their language and computers have theirs as well."
nextsmm 16 Junior Poster in Training
It's a language that a computer understands, also it is a general-purpose language. This language is quite old and mostly serves specific niches
rproffitt commented: Most of Linux is C. That's quite a large niche. +16
Paul Norris commented: This is like explaining that an Oak is a tree that grows in certain types of climates, to somebody who knows nothing about plants. +2
jwenting 1,889 duckman Team Colleague
Beating yourself on the head with a sledge hammer while dancing barefoot on white hot razor blades blindfolded.
rproffitt commented: Ah, I see you have a machine that goes bing! +16
Reverend Jim commented: Not a fan of the language, I take it? +15
bdux 0 Newbie Poster
At the most primitive level, computers can perform a set of actions, also known as instructions. A collection of these instructions when put together can solve a problem. This collection is called a program and assembling such a collection is known as programming. The vocabulary
of instructions is called assembly language.
Since we do not naturally think of problems in assembly language, new languages are created that are closer to the way
we think of computing. These are called high level languages. Programs written in these languages are converted into assembly language.
One of these languages is C. C is an 'earlier' language but is very powerful and effecient. Consequently, it remains in use and is popular
although there are, many competitors including a newer version called C++.
rproffitt 2,662 "Nothing to see here." Moderator
For bdux.
Long ago I worked exclusively with assembler code. I pined for the day I could use a higher level language. It was not to be at that time.
Our group, threatened with the end of production of the processor we used created our own replacement processor.
Instead of moving to a higher level language a few of us had to create microcode.
To this day I think I'm quite the lucky person for getting the experience of being on a processor development team.
Be a part of the DaniWeb community
We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.