C was developed by Dennis Ricthie on a DEC PDP-11 machine, which was running on UNIX Operating System.

Now, there can be a question pop up in your mind, “I heard UNIX was written in C, how come C was developed on UNIX ?” answer is “Yes, you are correct” but the trick is “Unix was first written in Assembly Language, later it was re-written in C”.

C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup, C++ is an extended version of C, initially C++ was named as “C with Classes” later renamed to “C++”.

When C is already out there and it is doing good then why do we need C++ ? By the time C++ was invented, most of the projects written in C (Procedural Programming) were reached to a point where maintaining them any longer is difficult due to the complexity of the projects like more no. of files, etc., the programming world was in need of a new approach which paved the paths for C++ (Object Oriented Programming).

History:

• Development of C was started in early 1970’s.
• Development of C++ was started in late 1979.

Standardization:

• First ANSI/ISO standard of C was in 1989, which is called as “C89”.
• First ANSI/ISO standard of C++ was in 1998, which is called as “C++98”.
• For more information on standardization click on C, C++.

Level of Language:

• Both C and C++ are “Middle-level” programming languages because of the following reasons:
  • Can able to manipulate “bit” (lowest level of memory).
  • Can access memory using addresses (Pointers).
  • Supports Data Types, but not strongly typed.
  • Structured, but not Block Structured.