What is C?

Before talking about C and it’s iterations, we need to first understand the concept of low level of high level programming. In a nutshell, low level programming is the deepest you can go in terms of any technical aspects as it has a close interaction with the physical hardware of a system, for example, memory management. A high level program however, doesn’t have to deal with any of these aspects, making it far easier to use for beginners and much less complex overall.

What’s the difference between C, C++ and C#?

Now, with that out of the way, there are three main types of C used. C, C++ and C#. Lets go through them in this order. C is the oldest language and probably the most complex, it was created way back in 1972 and was originally intended to create operating systems. It can also be used to create highly complex low level software, such as database systems and compilers. Developed next in 1985 was C++ and I would best describe C++ as an extension to C with more functionality.

C++ also has the added benefit of allowing the use of objects, a feature not available in C. C++ is primarily used for video game development and GUI’s.

Finally, we come to C#, the most recent iteration of C. Developed by Microsoft in 2000, C# is higher level language compared to it’s counterparts. C# is primarily used for web application, web development and video games. It bares a striking similarity to Java in it’s functionality and syntax, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence..

Basic C, C++ and C# Example: Hello World x 10

The below code snippet is to give you a basic idea of what the different C syntax looks like. This code produces a simple ‘Hello World’ script, but also adds a condition that makes it repeat the message 10 times before exiting. The purpose of this script is to compare how other languages can vary in complexity.

#C
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  printf("Hello\n");
  }

#C++
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
  cout << "Hello\n";

#C#
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
  {
print("Hello World!
  }

In comparison to other programming languages, C# was by far the easiest and simplest to write this code for. For comparison, this site will include many other examples of the ‘Hello World x10’ script, written in different languages. Obviously Python will still be the easiest to code with, but C# is my personal winner here.

“The code you write makes you a programmer. The code you delete makes you a good one. The code you don’t have to write makes you a great one.” – Mario Fusco.