programming-for-dummies

“Curly Bracket” Languages 63
“Curly Bracket” Languages
If you know BASIC or Pascal, you can rush out and start writing programs
without ever needing to know another programming language again for the
rest of your life. However, it’s far more common for programmers to know two
or more programming languages. Typically, the one language that most programmers
know is one that belongs to a family of related languages known as
the “curly bracket” family.
The “curly bracket” language family gets its name because they use curly
brackets to define the start and ending of a block of commands, such as
Book I
Chapter 3
Types of
Programming
Languages
#include
void main()
{
printf(“Notice how the curly brackets\n”);
printf(“identify the beginning and end\n”);
printf(“of your commands?\n”);
}
Rather than use curly brackets, many other programming languages use
descriptive words, like Begin or End, to identify the start and end of a block
of code.
The most popular “curly bracket” language is C. The C language is popular
for several reasons:
✦ Power
✦ Efficiency
✦ Portability
The power of C
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 high-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).