scope:

This International Standard specifies the form and establishes the interpretation of programs written in the C programming language.1) It specifies - the representation of C programs; - the syntax and constraints of the C language; - the semantic rules for interpreting C programs; - the representation of input data to be processed by C programs; - the representation of output data produced by C programs; - the restrictions and limits imposed by a conforming implementation of C. 2 This International Standard does not specify - the mechanism by which C programs are transformed for use by a data-processing system; - the mechanism by which C programs are invoked for use by a data-processing system; - the mechanism by which input data are transformed for use by a C program; - the mechanism by which output data are transformed after being produced by a C program; - the size or complexity of a program and its data that will exceed the capacity of any specific data-processing system or the capacity of a particular processor; - all minimal requirements of a data-processing system that is capable of supporting a conforming implementation.