Posted: 6/6/2005 2:49:15 PM EDT
I am taking a C programming class this summer, and I would like to know if there are any good tutorials or books available to help me. I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent guy, but this stuff is hurting my mind!!! Any help appreciated.
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Try to find a copy of "The C Programing Language" By Kernighan and Richie. You want the later (ANSI Standard) version. Its a really good into to C. Edited to add: And if in your search, you come across the Ba****ds who walked off with my two copies, please kick them for me!! |
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One piece of advice: Linear programming is bad, bad, bad. Use C as a primer for basic programming constructs, but concentrate on object-oriented concepts. Learn C++, Java, or, hell, even Objective C, but don't spend a ton of time learning how to write case statements and if/else spaghetti. |
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This might sound kinda dumb and backwards, but if you are having a lot of trouble understanding why things happen in C, you may want to write a couple of apps in like .NET and see how it has evolved. then read a book on C, Osborn???? i think is the writer, usually has some good reads. Other than that you can PM me specifics if you want. This is straght c right? you can't call C++ and C# and blah blah blah C. they are all different. If I had any advice to give you about being a software engineer is stick to the older lower level languages like C or assembly or C++ even. .Net took a lot of the skill out of being a programmer and No. 2 is going to be worse. If you want to learn something stick to the old compilers cause pretty soon they will be able to teach a monkey to wirte a .Net app at this rate. my 2 cents, BTW. |
why would you ever do that to yourself??? why!! If i still had my programming texts I would mail them to you free of charge just to get rid of them but someone else asked first. I hate programming. |
If you are going to do C++ then skip C (unless you can't). Object Oriented is a whole different concept and you just end up trying to unlearn procedural programming. C has a subset of C++ commands and most C++ books and courses will cover all the commands anyway. C has it's uses but unless you write drivers or real-time apps it's a dead end. Amazon may have some C books but they are getting kinda scarce in Barnes and Noble/Borders. |
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You'll have to be more specific. What is currently "hurting" your brain? Is it the variable types? Syntax? functions? include? pragma? make? headers? weird compiler errors? floating point? printf? variable-length arguments? Definitions, declarations, prototypes, pointers, arrays, memory allocation, function pointers, etc? If you clarify a bit more, we can help you all the better. In the meantime, there is one thing that will at least help you in knowing what you can and can't do: Online, there are sites that give the syntax structure of C's reserved words much like a syntax structure for english (for instance, noun verb noun, etc) It's also available in "The C Programing Language" By Kernighan and Richie, which everyone wants to call "the best". Many of these syntax trees for C are easy to read, even for newbies. Do not rely upon this, but whenever you're wondering whether a specific line of code you wrote would compile, you can just as easily check a syntax tree -- it helps you develop a sense for the language. You gotta take it with a grain of salt that some of that stuff isn't going to be recognizeable to you yet, so just skip over what you don't understand, or else you'll spend too long without anything accomplished. I agree that "The C Programming Language" is a widely-used book and by far one of the best in its class, and one of the first, to boot (it was a lot thinner back then...)-- however just because a book is one of the best in its field doesn't make it a good book overall. The layout of tricks and topics leaves much to be desired, so you often hunt for information within the book. Other than that, it's awesome. --BTW-- You should be able to find an online copy of "The C Programming Language" somewhere. That way you can at least have a full-text search of the book at your disposal. |