Today, the internet needs no introduction. Certainly, millions of desktops, laptops, routers, and servers are connected to the internet and have been for decades. However, billions of additional devices are now connected as well—mobile phones, tablets, gaming systems, vehicles, refrigerators, television sets, industrial machinery, surveillance systems, doorbells, and even light bulbs. The new Internet of Things (IoT) trend has people rushing to connect even more unlikely devices every day.

Over 20 billion devices are estimated to be connected to the internet now. These devices use a wide variety of hardware. They connect over an Ethernet connection, Wi-Fi, cellular, a phone line, fiber optics, and other media, but they likely have one thing in common; they likely use C.

The use of the C programming language is ubiquitous. Almost every network stack is...