Читать книгу Beginning Programming All-in-One For Dummies - Wallace Wang - Страница 59

The C language is a curious combination of assembly language and high-level languages, like BASIC. Like assembly language, C provides commands for directly manipulating every part of the computer, including memory, hard disks, and printers. Like a high-level language, C lets you focus on the logic of your program without worrying about the technical details of the computer, so you get the best of both assembly language and high-level languages.

Because C programs are nearly (note the emphasis on the word nearly) as easy to write and understand as higher-level languages but still give you the power of accessing the computer's hardware like assembly language, C is often used for creating large, complicated programs (such as operating systems and word processors) along with more exotic programs (like antivirus utilities or disk diagnostic programs).

With great power comes great responsibility, and C is no exception. Because C programs can access every part of the computer’s hardware, C programs can fail dramatically by crashing other programs, including the entire operating system.