8051 C Programming

8051 C language is an often-preferred choice when the complexity of a program increases considerably. 8051 C language is an alternative to the assembly language programming. The choice of which to use is entirely up to you, the programmer. Factors that commonly influence such a decision are the desired speed, code size and ease of programming. Since the intent of this section is to present the basics of programming the 8051 in C.

Advantages and disadvantages of 8051 C

The advantages of programming the 8051 in C as compared to assembly are:

• Offers all the benefits of high-level, structured programming languages such as C, including the ease of writing subroutines.
• Often relieves the programmer of the hardware details that the compiler handles on behalf of the programmer.
• Easier to write, especially for large and complex programs.
• Produces more readable program source codes.

Nevertheless, 8051 C, being very similar to the conventional C language, also suffers from the following disadvantages:

• Possesses the disadvantages of high-level, structured programming languages
• Generally generates larger machine codes
• Programmer has less control and less ability to directly interact with the hardware