Dialects of C

[jayanthi mandhalapu]

Common C

    Until recently there was one dominant form of the C language. This was the native UNIX form, which for historical reasons is known as either Bell Labs C, after the most popular compiler, or K. &R. C, after the authors of the most popular textbook on the language. It is now often called "Classic C"

ANSI C

    The American National Standards Institute defined a standard for C, eliminating much uncertainty about the exact syntax of the language. This newcomer, called ANSI C, proclaims itself the standard version of the language. As such it will inevitably overtake, and eventually replace common C.

ANSI C does incorporate a few improvements over the old common C. The main difference is in the grammar of the language. The form of function declarations has been changed making them rather more like Pascal procedures.

This course introduces ANSI C since it is supported by the SUN workstation compilers. Most C programming texts are now available in ANSI editions.