Sams Teach Yourself C in 24 Hours (7 page)

C is a high-level programming language. In fact, C is one of the most popular general-purpose programming languages.

In the computer world, the further a programming language is from the computer archi-tecture, the higher the language’s level. You can imagine that the lowest-level languages are machine languages that computers understand and execute directly. The high-level programming languages, on the other hand, are closer to our human languages (see Figure 1.1).

FIGURE 1.1

High

The language spec-

If the line is

trum.

not busy, connect

The Human Language

to the Internet;

(e.g., English)

else, wait...

If (line ! = busy)

connect (Internet);

The High-Level Programming

else

Language (e.g., C)

wait (5)...

The Machine Language

10001111101100

(i.e., binary code)

01100111011000

Low

High-level programming languages, including C, have the following advantages:

•
Readability
: Programs are easy to read.

•
Maintainability
: Programs are easy to maintain.

•
Portability
: Programs are easy to port across different computer platforms.