Any good tutorial on C out there?

[millsy_c]

Hey part of my course atm is based around C, but no tutorials are given on the language (e.g. here's problem, solve).
I've been googling around a bit trying to find a good tutorial but haven't had much luck yet, has someone found a good tutorial they'd be able to share?
Thanks!

[stmok]

I don't know about online tutorials, but here's the books an experienced C programmer gave me when I asked them about learning C language...

(1) A Book on C: Programming in C
By Kelley and Pohl

(2) The C Programming Language
By Brian W. Kernighan
And Dennis M. Ritchie

(3) C - Traps and Pitfalls
by Koenig

[millsy_c]

Cool I found #2, appreciate the help

[Foliage]

The best way to learn is to just start coding a program, when you get stuck google away. You will probably end up re doing the program 5 times as you will learn more and more and realise how bad some of your previous techniques were, but this is the best way to learn, practice.

Pick a project like a graphical calculator that stores a log of all calcs made in a text file. Start by making the GUI, then the back end, then the code to write a log file.

Google everything you get stuck on, you will learn very quickly this way. Having a good reference book is always handy, though I will leave that up to the others as I don't know any good names off the top of my head.

[millsy_c]

Originally Posted by Foliage

The best way to learn is to just start coding a program, when you get stuck google away. You will probably end up re doing the program 5 times as you will learn more and more and realise how bad some of your previous techniques were, but this is the best way to learn, practice.

Pick a project like a graphical calculator that stores a log of all calcs made in a text file. Start by making the GUI, then the back end, then the code to write a log file.

Google everything you get stuck on, you will learn very quickly this way. Having a good reference book is always handy, though I will leave that up to the others as I don't know any good names off the top of my head.

Yeah that's what i'm doing atm, the multitude of potential things you need to do with printf is quite odd to someone who's used to C#/Visual Basic etc

[itachi46]

do people really still program in C? (and i mean pure C not some dialect of C) dont mean to threadcrap just genuinely interested

[Foliage]

Originally Posted by itachi46

do people really still program in C? (and i mean pure C not some dialect of C) dont mean to threadcrap just genuinely interested

of course they do!

sooo many things are coded in C still, basically every single microprocessor on the earth uses C, most kernel, driver etc programmers also use C.

[domlebo]

Originally Posted by itachi46

do people really still program in C? (and i mean pure C not some dialect of C) dont mean to threadcrap just genuinely interested

C is still pretty widespread, especially in embedded systems. Rule 34: If it exists, there's porn of it.... no wait... if it exists, there's a C compiler for it.

[itachi46]

hmm i suppose, i mean i kinda expected to see it in program that are very close to the hardware like drivers and kernels.. (afterall c was created to rewrite unix) i just find it too troublesome to use for most desktop applications... maybe im just too dumb to use it XD

[Foliage]

Originally Posted by itachi46

hmm i suppose, i mean i kinda expected to see it in program that are very close to the hardware like drivers and kernels.. (afterall c was created to rewrite unix) i just find it too troublesome to use for most desktop applications... maybe im just too dumb to use it XD

no one would use it to write a desktop application these days, be very painful for zero gain.

[antenna]

Plenty of desktop apps on Linux use it (nearly everything using GTK/Gnome etc).

[itachi46]

Originally Posted by Foliage

no one would use it to write a desktop application these days, be very painful for zero gain.

yeh i suppose its becoming like assembly in the yee olde days yes u can get slight performance gain if you're epic at C but it comes down to risk/reward of it.. and its probably better using a higher level language and program it in 1/10th the time with slightly less performance... also, future development is probably easier to handle on languages like c#,java etc but i suppose it couldnt hurt to learn C it makes you appreciate alot of things we take for granted in languages that is made in the last 25 years.

[t3h]

Originally Posted by Foliage

no one would use it to write a desktop application these days, be very painful for zero gain.

Pure C, maybe not, but there's plenty of apps in C++.

[domlebo]

Originally Posted by antenna

Plenty of desktop apps on Linux use it (nearly everything using GTK/Gnome etc).

Only because we have uber nerds (Linus, Stallman) who are so massively egotistical they don't want to redo GNU Linux / Linux in C++, because they seem to have a chip on their shoulder. Instead we have weird arse coding conventions built around the fact it's becoming difficult to maintain.

[itachi46]

yeh i'd buy that its either dialects of c or C++ but pure c? really o.o... jeez.