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C programming is a procedural language compiled to provide low-level memory access and ensure programs run first and efficiently. The program is built with portability in mind thus, it can run on several computer platforms.
The program is suitable for beginners in programming and when choosing C language, consider the following pros and cons.
Pros:
1. Portable language: The C programs written in one computer can run on any computer without any change of the program code or having a slight change.
2. Building block for other languages: The C program act as the building block for other programming languages. Programs written in C are more efficient and easy to understand. The underlying principles of the C language are applied in other languages.
3. Structured programming language: A C program is a procedure-oriented language with a collection of function modules and blocks that form a complete program. The structured blocks make it easy to debug, test, and maintain the program.
4. Easy to learn: It is very easy to learn the C language and acts as the basis for understanding other complex languages. It uses a syntax similar to the English language for easy understanding.
5. Built-in function: The C language gives you the opportunity to use several built-in functions in the C library to develop a program.
6. User-defined function: Apart from the standard function in the C library, you can create your own user-defined function to solve a specific problem. Adding more functions in the C library makes your programming work easier.
7. Explore hidden objects: In the C program, you can easily access hidden or blocked objects from the use of other programming languages.
8. Speed-up programs: Since other languages are based on c program, it speeds up a program that is developed using other programming languages.
The programs in C run faster than in other languages.
9. Compile language: It enables the program code to be compacted into an executable instruction rather than being translated by the interpreters.
10. Low level of abstraction: The C programming language is close to system hardware specifications making it easy to know how the higher-level language works and interacts with the machine.
Cons:
1. Data security: There is a lot of buffer overflow in the C language and this can lead to overwriting the information in the memory. When pointers are updated with incorrect data, it will result in memory corruption.
2. No run-time checking: The C language does not allow runtime checking making it difficult to fix the bugs if you extend the program. Mostly it does compile type checking.
3. No strict type checking: When passing data to the parameters, there is no strict data type checking since we can pass an integer value to the parameter. No confirmation of the right data type is used.
4. No code-reuse: C language doesn’t have OOP features that support source code reusability. It doesn’t support constructors and destructors.
5. Namespace concept: C language doesn’t support program namespace thus, it is impossible to declare two variables at the same time as in the C++ program.
6. No OOP concepts: Object-oriented programming concepts like data abstraction, polymorphism, inheritance, and other C++ programming concepts are not supported in the C language. Every algorithm in C is a set of function calls.
7. Effects on Today’s programming: C program does not support enough library functions which can be used to handle today’s complex programming environment.
8. Real-world problems: It cannot be used to solve real-world programming challenges.
9. Extending the program issues: When you extend the program, it will be very difficult for you to fix any errors and bugs. The C language is effective when dealing with simple projects.
10. High-level constructs: You need to manually create the high-level constructs in the C programming language. Third-party libraries and other solutions need to be configured before use.
