scope:

This International Standard specifies the from and establishes the interpretation of programs written in the C programming language.¹It 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.

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 supposing a conforming implementation

¹ This International Standard is designed 10 promote the probability of C programs among a variety of data-processing systems. It is intended for use by implementers and programmers. It is accompanied by a Rationale document that explains many of the decisions of the Technical Committee that produced it.