C is a general-purpose programming language widely used to develop operating systems and compilers. Some key points: - C was originally developed in the 1970s to write the UNIX operating system and is still commonly used for systems programming. - It produces very efficient, low-level code and can handle tasks like memory management manually. - C programs are compiled to machine code before execution. The source code is written in ".c" files and compiled using a C compiler like GCC. - C supports basic data types like integers, floats, characters, and arrays to organize data in programs. Qualifiers like const can refine variable declarations.