C is a general-purpose programming language widely used to develop operating systems and compilers. Some key points:
- C was originally developed in the 1970s to write the UNIX operating system and is still commonly used for systems programming.
- It produces very efficient, low-level code and can handle tasks like memory management manually.
- C programs are compiled to machine code before execution. The source code is written in ".c" files and compiled using a C compiler like GCC.
- C supports basic data types like integers, floats, characters, and arrays to organize data in programs. Qualifiers like const can refine variable declarations.