Programs use environment variables, thanks to the getenv() function shown in last week’s Lesson. They can also create their own environment variables, reset variable values, and remove variables.
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The operating system’s environment provides temporary storage for variables, settings, and options. These values are easily accessible from any C program. One of the first posts I made on this blog was about accessing the environment. Time to revisit.
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When I teach C programming, I’m careful to admonish beginners about the difference between the = (assignment) and == (is equal to) operators. Yet there are times when these two operators collaborate.
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As with all language updates, things change. Some of these items are deprecated while others are outright removed. Here’s the list.
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While other programming languages seem to improve and update in great leaps, C moves at a glacial pace. The C23 upgrade offers a few new and exciting features, but nothing I would call impressive or awesome.
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You can initialize an array in the C programming languages in three ways: Not at all, only some elements, or all of the elements. Some compilers offer a fourth way, which initializes all elements to the same value. With the C23 standard, yet another way to initialize an array is possible.
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As C evolved, so did the definitions for integer sizes short, int, and long. Back when I first coded C, a short was 8-bits, an int was 16-bits, and a long was 32-bits. These values aren’t the same today or even consistent across platforms. This issue is addressed in the C23 standard by using the _BitInt() data type.
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While the C language offers hexadecimal notation and output, it ignores binary. Now with the C 23 standard, binary expression and output is supported.
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The C23 standard is only partially implemented on a few compilers. To ensure that you can build C23 programs, you must obtain the latest compiler version from your distro’s package manager. Even then, not all the C23 capabilities may be available.
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The next C standard is established and it’s slowly being implemented. If you have the latest version of the C compiler installed on your system, you can take advantage of some of the fun and improved features of the C programming language.
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