HP C originates from the C language designed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories. It descended from several ALGOL-like languages, most notably BCPL and a language developed by Ken Thompson called B.
C has been called a "low-level, high-level" programming language. C"s operators and data types closely match those found in modern computers. The language is concise and C compilers produce highly efficient code. C has traditionally been used for systems programming, but it is being used increasingly for general applications.
The most important feature that C provides is portability. In addition,
C provides many facilities such as useful data types, including pointers
and strings, and a functional set of data structures, operators, and control
statements.
Because an ANSI-conforming compiler is required to do more thorough error detection and reporting than has been traditional among C compilers in the past, you may find that your productivity will be enhanced because more errors will be caught at compile time. This may be especially true if you use function prototypes.
If you do not specify the mode of compilation, beginning with the HP-UX
10.30 operating system release, it defaults to -Ae.
In HP-UX 10.20 and earlier releases, compatibility mode is the default
compilation mode. In HP-UX 10.30 forward, extended ANSI mode (-Ae)
is the default.
HP C/HP-UX, when invoked in ANSI mode, is a conforming implementation
of ANSI C, as specified by American National Standard 9899-1990. The ANSI
C Standard terminology is used here, and HP C is defined by that standard,
while also documenting the implementation decisions and extensions made
in HP C/HP-UX. It is not the intent of the online help to replicate the
standard. Thus, you are encouraged to refer to the standard for any fine
points of the language not covered here.
You may access HP C online help with the command line:
/opt/cc/bin/cc +helpThe main HP C Online Help page will display links to the following reference and usage information: