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Scientific computing in real and complex domains
Although C is a powerful systems programming language that can deliver much of the same control over devices as assembly language, it has deficiencies when it comes to scientific and engineering applications that require extensive numerical computing. While some numerical computing deficiencies in the original K&R C were addressed in C90, many limitations still remain.
C99, ratified as the ANSI/ISO C Standard (ISO/IEC IS 9899), is a milestone in C's evolution into a viable programming language for scientific and numerical computing. Among other features, C99 supports IEEE floating-point arithmetic, complex numbers, and variable-length arrays (VLAs) for numerical programming. Complex numbers and VLAs were added mainly based on the prior art of implementation of Ch from SoftIntegration (http://www.softintegration.com/docs/ whitepaper/), SCC from Cray Research (http://www.cray.com/nv, gcc from Free Software Foundation (http://www.gnu .org/), and others.
Although support for C99 is limited, more compilers are adding these new features. For example, Comeau C 4.2.45.2 from Comeau Computing (http://www .comeaucomputing.com/features.html#c99) supports VLAs without complex numbers. The C compiler from Hewlett-Packard supports VLAs and complex numbers. GCC 2.95 and later...