#BEGINNING C PROGRAMMING
6 messages in this thread
To all:
I am a college student interested in learning the C language. I
have alreadly mastered basic, fortran, cobol, and pascal, and now ready to
learn C. However I don't know where to start. Can you help me? I want to
know what is the difference between C, C+, and C++. Is there any
difference between Turbo C and Microsoft C? What books would you recommend
for me?
Please send responces to Esayplex
Thank you,
Eric 71041,3056
Actually, start with Al Stevens' column in DDJ. Not that it's for
the beginner — but you should get a good reading on many of
your questions (like the MSC/Borland question or the C vs C++
debate).
Eric,
The problem with sending responses via EasyPlex (or, rather,
CompuServe Mail) is that others don't get to benefit from the results.
Still, I'll Email you a copy of this.
I cannot speak about MicroCrud C vs. Turbo C. Besides the fact that
I'm severely biased against "Billy" Gates and crew, I've never used either
of them (I'm a Mac guy).
As for the various C's, I've never heard of C+ — I suspect it's an
old precursor to C++. There IS C+-, a.k.a. Object C; the only Object C
compiler I know of, though, is THINK C 4.0 for the Mac. Anyhow, C++ and
Object C (which is a subset of C++, by the way) are both object-oriented
extensions to C. For now stick with C.
Aside from DDJ itself, Rex Jaesche (sp?) has written a series of
columns in DEC Professional, which have been compiled into one or two
books, entitled "Let's C Now." It's a good C tutorial. I'd also recommend
"Programming in C" and/or "Programming in ANSI C" by Stephen Kochan,
published by Howard W. Sams. They're both good tutorials AND reference
books. (If you don't have to worry about pre-ANSI C, stick with the latter
— the ANSI C book is basically the same book as the other one, modified
for ANSI C rather than the older K&R standard).
Joe
Thanks Joe,
I will start with some books and also with DDJ. Whats wrong with
'Billy' Gates? I like the style of MS products.
Eric
Eric,
I've had a prejudice against MicroCrud ever since their Customer
Retort department responded to a bug report with the equivalent of, "yeah,
we know about it. So what?" Add to that the mess (sic) that MeSs-Windows
software development is (the libraries are set up for larger memory models,
yet MS-Windows wants the smaller ones?), plus Gates' basic attitude (which
often reminds me of the child he tends to look like), plus the general
"break the rules for speed" attitude they have (yeah, they can get away
with it in the PC world, since they MADE 95% of the rules, but they've been
bitten often enough with that with their Mac products that any other
company would've followed Jasmine into Chapter 11 long before now), and
you've got, IMHO, a software company that isn't worth buying products from.
Joe
Joe
Add to all that their upgrade policy which states (tho I've not seen it in
writing):
"This is a faster and better product than the one that it's replacing.
Therefore you should not expect it to correctly compile (if at all) code
that was written for the prior version"
When I discovered that my MASM 5.1 upgrade wouldn't assemble code written
for MASM 5.0 I trashed MASM and bought Borland's assembler.
Upward compatibility? What's that?
JIM