Historical Context
C was created by Dennis Ritchie in the early 1970s at Bell Labs as a progression from the B programming language. The primary objective behind the development of C was to ensure its compatibility with system programming, particularly in the context of crafting the UNIX operating system.
Evolution: Throughout its development, C underwent modifications and was standardized following the ANSI C (C89/C90), C99, and C11 specifications, incorporating fresh functionalities and enhancements in each iteration.
Key Features:
Several key features of C Language are as follows:
- Procedural Language: C is the main language that is intended for procedural programming and organizes its code in functions and procedures.
- Low-Level Access: C provides low-level memory manipulation capabilities by means of pointers that allow direct addressing of memory locations.
- Data Types: C allows the use of many types of data such as: Basic types: int, char, float, and double Derived types: arrays, structures, unions
- Standard Libraries: A comprehensive collection of standard libraries provides features for input/output, string handling, memory management, and mathematical operations.
- Portability: C programs are capable of being compiled over numerous platforms with a little change, thus C is a revered language in terms of portability.
Syntax:
The familiarity gained by earlier languages and characterized by using other programming ideas creates syntactic rules for C.
- The use of braces to delineate blocks of code.
- Semicolons to terminate statements.
- C is function-based.
- Efficiency: C is a low-level language known for its performance gained not only at the compiler level but also by manual optimizations.
- Flexible Memory Management: The developers have complete power over the allocation and de-allocation of the memory, which enables good utilization of resources.
- Community: C has an expansive user base, with a healthy dimension of community support and resources on offer.
- Common Application Areas: C finds applications in systems programming, embedded systems, game development, and performance-critical applications.
Performance:
Community and Applications
Fortran Programming Language
Background History
Fortran, short for "Formula Translation," stands as a programming language that IBM initially created in the 1950s for scientific and engineering computations. It holds the distinction of being the inaugural high-level programming language globally, designed to simplify the handling of mathematical equations.
Evolution:
Fortran has evolved over the years following a series of standards: starting with Fortran 77, followed by Fortran 90, and then Fortran 95. More recent versions include Fortran 2003, Fortran 2008, and Fortran 2018, each introducing new features and improvements as the language progressed.
Basic Features:
Several features of Fortan are as follows:
- Numerical Computation: Fortran is numerically and scientifically oriented and bears built-in support for complex mathematical functions and operations.
- Array Handling: Fortran boasts extensive capabilities in array manipulation. It can include operation of entire arrays without using explicit loops.
- Data Types: Fortran has several built-in types: Integer, real, complex, character Derived Types for User Defined Structures
- Standard Libraries: Fortran includes libraries particularly for mathematical and scientific computations like LAPACK and BLAS.
- Integer, real, complex, character
- Derived Types for User Defined Structures
- Fortran syntax is closest to everyday English, and could be written in either fixed or free format Fixed yntax associated with past versions (Fortran 77 example), where code is placed in specially-defined columns.
- Free Format-More modern versions (Fortran 90 and up) would allow much more flexibility in the construction of the code.
- Imperative and Procedural: The language is procedural, but in later versions, some object-oriented programming capabilities were introduced.
- Array and Matrix Operations: The language is designed to handle array and matrix operations efficiently, which makes it uniquely suited for scientific applications.
- Optimization for Numerical Tasks: Fortran compilers are highly optimized for numerical computations, frequently outperforming C in scientific applications due to their specialized optimization for loops and array handling.
- Compiler Optimizations: The modern Fortran compilers can automatically optimize code for performance, particularly in array operations.
- Community: Fortran still possesses a robust community, less the developers but more in academia and scientific research.
- Typical Use Cases: In the major fields like computational fluid dynamics, numerical weather prediction, physics applications, and engineering, Fortran usage remains abundant.
Syntactical Aspects:
Programming Paradigms
Performance
Community and Applications
Key differences between C and Fortan:
There exist numerous fundamental distinctions between C and Fortran. A few primary variances are outlined below:
| Feature | C | Fortran |
|---|---|---|
| Historical Background | It was developed in the early 1970s to provide system programming. | It was developed for scientific computing in the 1950s. |
| General Purpose Program | Programming and systems programming. | Commonly used for scientific and engineering applications. |
| Syntax Style | It uses braces { } to define blocks and a semicolon to terminate statements. | English-like syntax supporting both fixed and free formats. |
| Data Types | It supports basic types: int, char, float, double; structures and unions; | Built in types: integer, real, complex, character; Derived types. |
| Memory management | These need pointers and management is manual (malloc, free). | Generally, automatic memory management exists on arrays, and alloca() reserves space on the stack. |
| Array Handling | It requires explicit loops for array operations. | It has built-in support for array operations produces an extremely concise notation for matrix manipulations. |
| Performance | High performance with some manual optimizations possibly. | Usually outperformed by arrays and mathematical operations due to compiler optimizations involved. |
| Standard Library | Standard library is really rich (stdio.h, and stdlib.h). | Libraries for numerical methods are optimized further (LAPACK, BLAS). |
| Programming Paradigm | Mainly procedural programming but structured programming gets support as well. | Object-oriented features were introduced in later versions into an already imperative and procedural Fortran standard. |
| Portability | It is currently high portable to other platforms with very little modification. | It is also portable but might require some specific compilers to access its full power. |
| Community | A very large community with extensive resources and documentation. | A dedicated community; rather growing recently and primarily involved in scientific research and academia. |
| Object-oriented support | Limited support: It simulates OOP features using structures and function pointers for OOP-like behavior. | Enhanced support for OOP in Fortran 2003 and later. |
| Use Cases | Typical cases are operating systems or in embedded systems, game development, and application software. | Everybody tending to take their scientific realm revolves around numerical weather predictions, computational fluid dynamics, and simulations to do. |
| Error Handling | Error handling is basic, based on return values and errno. | A much stronger error handling in modern Fortran with iso_err module. |