Difference between C and C++ – Basic Differences

Difference between C and C++ is nothing more than just the upgradation and addition of various features.

As we know, both c and c++ are programming languages and used basically for various applications development.

Thus to know more about c and c++, one first must know what programming language is all about.

Programming Language

A programming language is just a formal language which produces numerous of outputs and also comprises of set of instructions.

Other than general programming language, have a programme machine to set the specific instructions.

Nowadays where thousands of different kinds of programming languages have been created and much more within a year.

Where some programming languages are written in a proper sequence of operations or in an imperative form other programming language uses declarative form, means, they are specified with the result and not the sequence of operation.

Besides this, programming languages are also restricted in such a way that all possible algorithms can be expressed through it.

A programming language is usually divided into two components which are syntax and semantics.

Where some programming languages can be defined as a specified document like c as it is specified only to ISO standard.

While some of them have a dominant implementation which can be treated like a reference as in programming language Perl.

However, some programming languages have both the features in which the basic language is defined through specifications, while extensions can be dominantly implemented.

Also Read: Differences Between Grid Computing and Cloud Computing

Development of Programming Languages

Very early, in computers such as colossus, programming was done with the use of the stored programme which is most often done by modifying the circuits as well as settings of the system.

Moving forward, came the First-generation programming languages, which were actually the machine languages in which programs were usually get written.

Under this programming language, the programmer used to write instructions in numeric form and hardware executes itself directly.

This includes the decimal as well as a binary form of languages.

Then came in existence, Second generation programming languages, or were also termed as assembly languages.

Under this language system, instructions are taken in the form of architecture but are specified to some computers.

This format of language was more readable to humans.

Then Third-generation programming languages were introduced which was also termed as High-level programming language.

Under this programming language, instead of a numerical value,  shortcode statements were represented in the mathematical expression and Hardware convert it to the understandable form.

However,  these all processes were slow enough, and hence compiler was introduced at the University of Manchester, which automatically converts the languages into machine code.

Meanwhile, the continuous as well as increased uses of third-generation programming language requires low-level programming language or system programming language.

They were used to perform a various task which was directly accessible to the hardware facilities but yet provide high-level control structures.

Some of them are APL, ALGOL, Lisp, Simula, c, petrology and ML.

Then evolved Fourth level programming language which provides various abstractions other than a third levels programming language like security, reliability,  verification and modularity.

Then the  Modern or Fifth level programming languages introduced and are used nowadays which works both on the specification as well as domination process.

Uses of Programming Languages

By going through the term programming language and its development,  we came to know that thousands of programming languages have been created in the field of computer.

But if we talk about the individual’s software program that most often five programming languages are being used.

Comparing the real world where humans utterance does being erratic are taken as understandable with the computers which are restricted with what to understand.

Thus, to make a computer or can say the virtual world understand our language,  the programming languages are being used.

So programming languages provide an appropriate structure and mechanism to define each piece of data properly.

The programmer uses the abstractions present in the language to represent the concepts. The concepts are represented as a collection of the primitives, and through the process of programming, these primitives are combined to form new commands or programs.

While programs for a computer might be executed in a batch process without human interaction.

Now,  after being aware of programming languages, one can get access to the programming languages such in C and C++.

But the difference between C and C++ can be known on a greater aspect after being read deeply and separately.

So let’s begin with the programming language C.

Programming Language c

c is a computer programming language used for general purpose.

It supports structured programming,  lexical variable scope and recursion.

Through design, c provides constructs that relate efficiently to typical machine instruction and also found its use in applications coded in assembly language.

c, being a successor to the programming language B, was developed by Dennis Ritchie in between 1972 to 1973 at Bell Labs.

It was actually developed to construct utilities and reimplement the kernel of the Unix operating system.

By 1980, c has become one of the most widely used programming languages with c compilers working for various vendors to the computer architectures and operating systems.

C is an imperative procedural language and was established or designed when the use of high-level programming language has increased and required low-level programming language.

Thus, c is a low-level programming language yet this compiled for a wide variety of computer platform and operating system with few changes to its source code.

Development of the programming language c

The origin of as a programming language is closely related to the development of Unix operating system.

Unix operating system was ported to Pdp11 but to make utilities for the new platform, a programming language was needed.

Firstly, Thompson tried to make Fortran compiler but gave up with it and developed BCPL systems programming language. But the modification of syntax takes place, making it less wordy and term it as B. But B programming language was too slow to work with pdp11.

However, in 1972 Ritchie started to improve the programming language and leads to the creation of c.

Thus the programming language c, its compiler and some utilities were included in version 2 Unix.

With the Version 4 Unix operating system, the programming language c is reimplemented and acquired some powerful factors.

According to the advancement of technology and operating system, the programming language also have to get advanced and replenished as from K$R c, ANSI c, ISO c, c89, c99, c11, c2x and Embedded c.

Uses of  the programming language C

is widely used as system programmings being implemented in operating systems and embedded with system applications.

As a coding system of the programming language c is portable and hence can be used for various purposes.

However, when it became very necessary, then system-specific code is also used as access by specific hardware addresses and perform functions in less time.

Besides this, is also used in website designing and programming by using CGI as a gateway to collect information from the web application, the server and the browser.

Being speedy, stable and universally available, the programming language is used most often.

c, having the efficiency of compilers, libraries and interpreters are often used an intermediate language because it gets implemented with other languages very easily.

Programming Language c++

The programming language c++ is also a general-purpose programming language which is an extension to the programming language c or c with classes.

The programming language also gets expanded time and over and the latest c++ version is now object-oriented, generic as well as with functional features.

It is also used for low-level programming compiled with the high-level programming language.

C++ being highlighted with design and became efficient with performance, function and is flexibly used with resource-constrained software and large systems.

C++ got a standing position with the impact of the International Organization for Standardization.

The c++ programming language was standardized for the very first time in the year 1998.

However, several changes took place with the time, and various version of c++ programming language came along with various functions such as c++03, c++11, c++14, and currently c++17.

History of Programming language c++

In the year 1979, Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish computer scientist, being motivated from his earlier experience, started to create a new language.

For this, Stroustrup began to work with the programming language c but with classes and hence lead to the invention of the programming language c++.

Stroustrup found that the programming language Simula was very helpful for large software development but too slow to use practically. At the same time, the programming language BCPL was too low level for high software development.

In the beginning, c++ was with the features like a compiler, cpre etc.

While in the year 1985, the first edition of the programming language c++was released.

Whilevarious versions of the language came into existence with the time like in the year 1989 c++2.0, in the year 1990  annotated c++ reference manual was published with the features including abstract classes, static member functions, const member function, protected members and templates, exceptions, namespaces, new castes and boolean type.

Uses of the programming language c++

The programming language c++ are used in a wide range for the development of various applications which arw based on adobe photoshop, which are friendly to graphic interface.

As c++ allows intensive functions of CPU to provide control over hardware and the language is very fast, hence it is used for developing various 3games as it overrides its complexities.

Various animated software are also developed with the help of c++ language. Software including 3animations, stimulations, renderness are used basically for image processing, mobile sensor applications, modelling, visual effects etc.

Being efficient in every aspect, the programming language c++ is used for developong various browsers like google chrome, mozilla firefox etc.

As c++ is an independent platform and able to create various softwares, hence various compilers like c#, java are written in this language.

Along with this, the language c++ is also used for the development of various operating systems like Microsoft windows, XP, office, Internet explorer, Apple operating system etc.

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